The Centre for Trade Policy and Development has called on the Government to give clear COVID-19 guidelines for the 2020 agricultural marketing season particularly in rural areas.
CTPD Senior Researcher Dr Simon Manda has observed that the current policy direction by Government to the COVID-19 crisis is inadequate in as far as providing a good framework for the fast approaching agriculture marketing season.
Dr Manda said the continued restrictions on social and economic activities risk causing widespread vulnerabilities especially for rural producers who face storage challenges and require quick access to markets.
He said it is a well-known fact that rural producers face diverse challenges such as poor storage, limited access to markets coupled with unclear agriculture marketing guidelines which often lead to serious delays in taking farmer’s produce to the markets eventually leading to sharp drops in commodity supply and price hikes.
Dr Manda said a prudent but cautious approach to agriculture marketing which considers the local context in the country can be advanced with clear marketing guidelines as the Government continues to fight the COVID-19 virus.
He warned that any delays to create COVID-19 agriculture marketing related guidelines might create social and economic problems probably much bigger than COVID-19 itself.
Dr Manda said in the current crisis, supporting broad based livelihoods will be crucial given that social protection is minimal.
Please my dearest farmers, God has answered our prayers of bumper harvests this year and don’t sell all your maize to FRA and these briefcase nyandules. I know some areas experienced low rainfall but at least they harvested for domestic consumption. PF government is a government of thieves, so sell only 25%. PF must go!
I don’t mind people raising genuine concerns. However, I find it to be a waste of time and energy raising concerns without giving possiblesolutions or recommending any solutions to a problem you have discovered. Let us be solution based rather than cry babies
*RADIO PROGRAMME ALERT*
UPND President *Hakainde Hichilema* aka *Bally* will this evening, Monday 18.05.2020 feature on *ISO Radio, 93.5 FM* to discuss various national issues.
*Time* : 18.20 hrs
The Programme will stream live on,
*Hakainde Hichilema* facebook
*UPND media* facebook watch
*UPND Youth* Facebook watch
*UPND MEDIA TEAM*
“Give Clear Guidelines for the 2020 agricultural marketing season, Government told”-LT
. Code
. Guidance
. Instruction
. Protocol
. Rule
. Clue
. Precept
. Signal
. Ground rule
. Key
. Mark
. Marker
. Standard procedure
PF and Mr. President these are fair requests and with precedent.
Maize harvest is being destroyed by grain weevils, almost a quarter is affected and we cant take the maize to sell because of this ban. If this ban continues so much maize will go bad hence affecting the overall quality of mealie meal and ultimately our food reserves. It is an ill timed ban, what they could have done is simply to ask all farmers who received inputs on FISP to sell at least 10 bags each to FRA to secure reserves, no FISP farmer can fail to do that.