Mazabuka District Commissioner, Misheck Chiinda, has advised the Food reserve agency, FRA, to quickly consider moving maize from rural depots to main storage depots at the boma.
Mr. Chiinda advised the agency to hire IFA trucks to commence the haulage of maize
from rural depots to the main storage depot at the Boma before the onset of the
rains.
He said major local transporters are shunning some depots due to poor state of the
road network in the area.
Mr Chiinda told ZANIS in Mazabuka, FRA should move in quickly and protect the grain
from going to waste in view of the unexpected rains being experienced in the
district.
He said undisclosed bags of maize which where kept outside the storage sheds at
Chikombola and Hanzala depots where soaked by rains because of lack proper tents.
Mr Chiinda said FRA should take the appeal seriously because once serious rains
start, Chikombola and Hanzala will be completely cut off from the rest of the
country.
He charged that government spent colossal sums of money to buy the maize and cannot
afford to allow the commodity to go go waste.
Meanwhile, Mr Chiinda has disclosed that government through the food reserve agency
has purchased a total of 323,898 by 50 kilogramme bags of maize as at the closing
date for the maize marketing exercise on 1st October,2007.
He said a total amount of K 8, 250,000,000 out of the K 12 Billion has already been
paid to the farmers.
Mr Chiinda, however, appealed to farmers, who have not yet received their payment
not to panic because measures have been put in place to clear the outstanding
payments.
Mazabuka overshot its target of buying maize by over 100,000 by 50 Kilogramme bags.
The bumper harvest has been attributed to the good agricultural policies by government.
