Differences in the price at which maize could be bought at in the 2019-2020 crop marketing season are likely to dent Zambia’s good crop harvest of the grain.
Zambia has produced an increase in maize production in the 2019-2020 season of 3,387,469 tons from 2,004,389 tons the previous season representing an increase of 69 percent.
With a carryover of 179,247 tons from the previous season, the country has a total maize stock of 3,566,716 tons for the 2020-2021 season.
The government has differed with the farmers on the price it has offered to buy maize through its grain storing agency, the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
The agency has offered to buy a 50-kilogram bag of maize for 110 Zambian Kwacha for the 2019-2020 crop marketing season, which has since been rejected by the farmers.
Minister of Agriculture Michael Katambo has insisted that the government will not succumb to demands from the farmers to increase the maize floor price.
He said farmers were at liberty to accept or reject the price because the country was in a liberalized economy.
But the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), an umbrella body of farmers, believes that it was unfortunate that the government did not peg the price at an agreed price of between 130 Kwacha and 140 Kwacha during consultations.
Calvin Kaleyi, the association’s spokesperson said it was regrettable that the government decided to announce a low price and that the price would make farmers not to realize maximum benefits.
“The ZNFU recognises that the cost of production has increased and continues to escalate while the asset base of farmers has been wiped out by the adverse weather pattern which has been prevailing season after season since 2015 and the hostile macroeconomic environment,” he said in a release.
The National Union for Small Scale Farmers in Zambia said farmers are not happy with the price and feel that the government is giving them a raw deal.
The association said it will continue to engage the government on a fair pricing mechanism for maize in the country so that farmers can earn sufficient benefit from their produce. Enditem
