The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) in Northern Province has backed President Edgar’s calls to revise this year’s floor price.
JCTR Outreach Regional Coordinator Felix Chiwela says his organization is in support of the President’s directive for the Ministry of Agriculture to revise the 2017/2018 floor price of K 65.
Mr. Chiwela supported Mr. Lungu’s directive saying his organization is disappointed with the K65 maize floor price per 50 kg bag for the 2017/2018 Maize Marketing Season as announced by the Food Reserve Agency ( FRA ).
JCTR Outreach Regional Coordinator Felix Chiwela says the K65 was not cost effective to meet the needs of farmers.
Mr.Chiwela has however remained optimistic that FRA with support from stakeholders will come to a conclusive decision on the revision of the maize floor price.
The FRA has set K65 as the floor price for a 50 kilogram bag of maize for the 2018 Crop Marketing Season, an increase of K5 from last year.
However, President Edgar Lungu said recently that the K65 maize floor price needs to be revised .
Mr. Lungu said during in Chipangali Constituency where he had gone to drum up support for PF Chipangali district council chairperson candidate Million Tembo on Sunday that he had advised the ministry of Agriculture to consult stakeholders like the Zambia National Farmers Union, small scale farmers and everyone concerned before coming up with a better price for the country’s essential commodity.
And Mr.Chiwela has called on famers to refrain from selling their maize to individual buyers as they risk losing out on profits.
The JCTR Outreach Regional Coordinator maintained that selling maize in bulky to FRA is the only way that farmers will benefit from this year’s Maize Marketing Season.
” The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) in Northern Province has backed President Edgar’s calls to revise this year’s floor price. ”
President Lungu has matured politically. We need a Miyanda type of leader in the opposition to challenge him. Only way our politics shall be balanced.
Nzelu, the Jesuit are only looking after their own interest not that of the common man so they will try and side with the so called supreme leader otherwise the supreme leader will unleash his wrath on them. Poor farmers are the ones to loose out , expect a lot of exploitation and smuggling. I don’t feel for these farmers because they are responsible for their own miseries voting for the same people who don’t take care of them typical of Africans, they love bad leadership