Speaking in in an interview at the just ended WFO General Assembly, Dr Nguleka said farmers should not be in a hurry to sell products to avoid a possibility of being exploited by traders.
Dr Nguleka, who is WFO president, urged farmers to go into legally constituted contracts so that they earn a decent income from their produce.
“We are encouraging farmers to go into legally constituted contracts and we are also urging them not to be in a hurry to sell their products.
“We have noted that storage infrastructure is what make farmers fail to make correct deals in terms of selling their produce to lucrative buyers or markets locally and internationally,” Dr Nguleka said.
She said ZNFU was lobbing Government to develop storage appropriate infrastructure to enable farmers’ trade effectively with neighbouring countries.
“If our storage infrastructure is correct, our farmers will move from one level to another in terms of progressing.
“More importantly, farmers must be in groups so that they look for lucrative buyers collectively,” Dr Nguleka said.
Dr Nguleka also said the just ended WFO General Assembly was successful and that it attracted 160 international delegates and almost 300 local people who joined during plenary sessions.
“For me, being a resident of Zambia, I am proud that the event has been very successful and the theme “Partnerships for Growth” was very appropriate for Zambia and the world.
“We realise that farmers cannot continue to live in isolation and hence we have to interact with stakeholders and we hope this meeting will develop into partnerships,” Dr Nguleka said.
This thief is not telling the truth. It is not storage that makes farmers to sell maize early. It is lack of cash, they do not have money. They can not continue holding on to maize when they have problems to solve. They bought fertiliser and other inputs by October last year and you do not expect them to survive on borrowed resources. They can not be waiting for the government to get ready and start buying maize at the pace. What she must encourage farmers is to sell maize to neighbouring countries where the prices are higher. Let buyers from Zimbabwe and Malawi be allowed to buy directly from the farmers at a higher price since the government claim that there is bumper harvest.
Be objective with your comments Matokwani…why should you encourage the farmers to sell their produce to Malawi and Zimbabwe when the inputs were subsidized by the government so that we have food security in the country…..gentle lets be be level headed and patriotic enough for our mother Zambia. lets try not to politicize every single thing, we just have one Zambia..
Not all fertiliser was subsidised, not only that each farmer was just given four bags of fertiliser and you do not expect such farmers to sell anything, it will just be for consumption. So do not tell me about subsidies because nobody is benefiting. I am very objective because I want farmers to get the value of what they have worked for and not be exploited by the government. Mind you peasant farmers started selling their maize a month ago because they have no money. That Dr stole money from ZNFU and she is stinking rich from stolen resources and her views do not represent the suffering of farmers. She is rubbing shoulders with politicians who are protecting her from being investigated and later prosecution. You do not give a peasant farmer four bags of fertiliser and expect food security…