Unscrupulous briefcase businessmen in Luubwe ward in chief Musungwa’s chiefdom in Itezhi-tezhi district are exploiting small scale farmers by buying maize at K36, 000 per bag instead of the recommended price of K65, 000.
“Desperation by farmers who have not sold a single maize bag to Food Reserve Agency (FRA) since the marketing season begun has caused small scale farmers in Luubwe to sell maize to briefcase businessmen who are buying the commodity at K36, 000 per 50Kg Bag” Luubwe ward councilor Moffat Chipandwe said today.[quote]
Mr Chipandwe said that FRA has not bought any maize in Luubwe since the beginning of the crop marketing season.
“The delay by FRA to buy maize in the district is working to the disadvantage of farmers who are now desperate and selling maize to briefcase businessmen at K36, 000 this is nothing when compared to the cost of farm inputs. Growing maize is becoming an unattractive business” he said.
He said that the desperation of farmers has been heightened by FRA’s announcement that it will only buy 4,000 bags of maize per cooperative in the district.
“Brief case businessmen have taken advantage of the failure by FRA to buy maize from the local farmers, they cannot buy at recommended prices because they know for sure that FRA will not buy all the maize.” He said.
He condemned the practice by FRA of buying not more than ten million worth of maize from each farmer as unfair.
‘‘You see most farmers have more than ten bags of maize but FRA are saying they cannot buy more than ten million from each farmers because that would attract Value Added Tax (VAT) this is not fair, why cant government revise this” he said.
Last week Itezhi-tezhi District Agriculture Coordinator (DACO) Frank Lubasi was disturbed by reports that Itezhi-tezhi milling which is the largest maize buyer in Itezhi-tezhi was buying maize at K50, 000 which is K15, 000 below the government recommended price.
ZANIS
these cons were left behind by chiluba and sata.the want to exploit these poor villagers and later export themaize tocongo
Its not only FRA who has failed.. RB govt has failed to deliver too….
FRA has indeed been a failure but these villagers sometimes just become desperate for nothing ithezi-thezi is within the proximity of lusaka infact FRA has even set up satelite depots there.the problem is these villagers can’t afford to wait for perods in order to get payment when they deliver to FRA hence when these cons flash their wands of cash these villagers are duped.
Let them be these villager they have always wanted this Government of no help to them coz thats what they vote for, so deserve it.
FRA is a disgrace government agency who have failed to put up measures to stop this trade.
There is no need of condeming the brief case businessmen and call them names, in the absence FRA proving a market to peasant farmers in ITT these guys should be appreciated as they are providing spot cash. What should not be forgotten is that failure to offload the maize harvest by the peasant will result into failure to buy inputs for the coming season. Why are we short sighted, year in year out FRA has never managed to buy all the maize countrywide. We are living in a free market economy. Let the pipo have the spot cash in their pockets and those buying will have to incur other costs like collection, storage and transportation to millers in urban arears. Lets us not kill business initiative by those who taking risks. End of the day money will be in circulation boost the economy.
Well #5 it depends on whether it covers the cost of farmers. Short term it sounds like a good solution to incompetent management from FRA but long term destroys the growth of the agriculture industry . If Zambia wants to be serious about agriculture and use it to boost the economy they need to duplicate Botswana on how it protects it’s beef industry and how well their goverment supports it. If Zambia is to divert from copper to mining they need to make farming so profitable. If it is managed well everyone in Zambia will see it as a way of living and not a hassle. Zambia needs to go back to basics and start with providing a market for the local hard working farmer who is trying to make a difference. What are the objectives of FRA in Zambia? What basis do they assess their performance?