Thursday, March 28, 2024

NAREP Press Statement On Maize Floor Price

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NAREP has said Zambia could become a food basket for the region because of its agricultural potential and have reminded the PF government time and time again that if they were a caring government this could be accomplished.
This is according to a press statement released to the media.

NAREP says the government has no good plan to support good agriculture policies starting from lowering the cost of inputs.

This can they say can be seen by the offer the government has given to farmers to sell their 50 KG bag of maize from the previous K60 to K65 which is a mockery to the farmers.

[pullquote]Farmers this coming season not to grow maize but try other crops that may bring some profit[/pullquote]

The cost of input including transport and fuel has escalated but government has continued suppressing the market price for the commodity. NAREP therefore asks farmers not to sell maize at K65 to FRA as they will make losses. Let them hold on to the maize or find ways to export and sell to governments that are serious than ours. We expected the bag to fetch over K80 and government must increase the flow price to K85 for a 50Kg bag.

Government should realise that farming is a business and what they are doing to farmers is unacceptable. NAREP also urges our farmers this coming season not to grow maize but try other crops that may bring some profit to them and send their children to school.

Growing maize in Zambia should only be for consumption and once we have a crisis and shortage of commodity that’s when it will fetch for a high price. Farmers need to teach this government a lesson as they don’t care about them.

If we had a proper rewarding agriculture policy, many youths today would have gone back to the land to go and grow many other crops apart from just maize.

Meanwhile the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) says now that the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has announced the maize prices, the millers will go in full force to purchase the crops.

MAZ Chairman Andrew Chintala told QTV News via telephone that the millers are already on the market buying the maize but that some farmers were hesitant to sell their produce as they were waiting for the FRA price.

Mr. Chitantala has also commended the government through the FRA for increasing the price of the crops saying last year the farmers complained of the price.

He said the association is glad that they were consulted by the FRA in deciding how the market should be managed.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Fair price is k100

    And price of mealie meal has to go up definitely.

    So dont come back and start complaining

    • Every citizen counts it doesn’t diminish what he is saying. So u would rather get nonsense from a populous party than hear sense from a minority party ?

  2. Encourage farmers to sell maize to private dealers, FRA, as one of the participants, is just buying five hundred thousand metric tonnes, and the rest private sector can comb the fields. K65 is neither floor nor ceiling price, but offer price from FRA who have built maize sheds closer to the farmers thereby cutting down on transport cost. Sir the price is fair!

  3. It is a recipe of triggering poverty.People are highly taxed.Instead of buying their products through the money that you tax them,you want even to get their sweat by paying them peanuts.This is the worst cruelty ever.Production cost of a bag of maize is very high.It is high time farmers were encouraged by paying them what is due for their sweat.

  4. What is this NAREP talking about? Does he understand anything on the matter,? I wonder! He needs to go back to school, how do you tell farmers not to grow maize and yet you also benefit from the same? Shallow thinking…you are no different from the others who are used to loosing in every election. No wonder your party does not grow.

  5. 100% my Prez. Why should we continue to exploit our own people but giving away all our resources to do called investors at the cost of brown envelopes in the hands of few people. Commercials farmers you have land to won’t even sell their maize in the country and will invest their returns elsewhere. Same things expecting different results… It’s this country so insane?

    Chipimo 2021

  6. This is a very sound and good statement from Narep. Those who disagree are not farmers and don’t know what it means to toil the land, the hardships involved and only to be dissapoined with a crooks system manipulated by evil forces (millers). My advise to farmers, don’t she your maize to millers we it directly to consumers be it in the market place or from you farm house. Let the consumer take that mize to the hammermill or solar mill. The farmer qi get a better return and the consumer will buy his or her maize at a better price.

  7. As long as exports remain banned we farmers are at the mercy of FRA selling cheaply to the millers and the local millers offering us below production cost for our maize as surplus maize in Zambia cannot be offloaded to other countries. Local millers know this so they take full advantage and offer very low prices year after year at the farmers expense….they can offer as low a price as they like, they know farmers are caught in a trap with no other options.

    If we could export maize local millers would at least have to pay export parity.

    Constant flip-flopping by Government on exports means that big private players will not touch maize and so we lose all the capital and liquidity that big traders would bring to our market (Cargill etc. lost millions of dollars because of export bans…

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