Harare — ZIMBABWEAN millers should support local agriculture instead of clamouring for the State to allow them to import genetically modified grain, a Government official has said.

This follows calls by the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe to allow the importation of GMOs into the country.

Agriculture Minister Joseph Made had already said Government could not permit the importation of environmentally harmful products.

Yesterday, a senior official in the ministry said the thrust should be to improve agriculture through schemes such as contract farming instead of "trying to support foreign businesses at our own expense".

The official said: "They should be capacitating local agriculture. Why do they want to support businesses run by white former commercial farmers and ex-Rhodesians in South Africa instead of supporting development of the agri-industry back home?

"The money spent on importing GMOs can easily be used to fund contract farming. Delta Beverages does it for its own production so why can't millers do the same?"

The official said the millers were not buying from the Grain Marketing Board.

"The money they want to use to import can be used to buy from the GMB and in the process support local industry and farmers."

On Monday Minister Made said: "We do not allow processed grain into the country because when they germinate they contaminate the environment."

He said millers were free to import genetically modified maize-meal though they would likely lose business because Zimbabweans generally shunned these products.

A number of African countries have been reviewing their policies on GMOs, with Zimbabwe being lauded for its strictness on the matter.

Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia are some of the countries that have generally barred the entry of GMOs.