FRA told to consider buying all the maize from farmers who delivered their grain

A civic leader in Mwanza Central ward in Monze district has appealed to the government through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to consider buying all the maize from farmers who delivered their grain after the buying exercise closed on August 30, 2022.

Mr Clement Hamakala told ZANIS in an interview yesterday that the agency should be lenient on the farmers who were ignorant about the closing date for the maize marketing season and buy their commodity to cover their production costs.

He said a number of small-scale farmers in the area produced large quantities of the staple food as compared to other areas in the district adding that they had high hopes of their commodity being bought by the government.

“As I speak right now at Ntambo depot, we have about 655 bags of white maize which farmers brought over the weekend but unfortunately were told that the FRA stopped buying the commodity on Friday, August 30, 2022. My humble appeal is for the government to consider buying the maize which farmers have already delivered at the depot as most of them were ignorant about the dates of closure of the marketing season,” said Mr. Hamakala.

The FRA officially closed the maize marketing season on Friday, August 30, 2022.

Meanwhile, Mr. Simon Malambo, the chairperson for Monze and Pemba Small Scale Farmers Association has also appealed to the FRA to extend the maize buying period to mop up all the grain which farmers produced to enhance food security.

He said farmers would feel unappreciated if the agency ignored the pleas from farmers adding that the marketing season was also too short for all the farmers to deliver their maize to depots for sale.

“We appeal to the government to allow FRA to extend the marketing season so that all their maize can be bought in order for farmers to meet their production costs and be able to grow more food in the forthcoming farming season,” said Mr. Malambo.

Mr. Malambo further suggested that government should allow small scale farmers to sell their maize directly to the Monze Milling Plant as a better alternative.