'Small-scale farmers lack market information'
Small-scale farmers lack market informationBy Fridah Zinyama
Monday June 23, 2008 [04:00]
ZAMBIA National Farmers Union (ZNFU) liaison officer Colliard Hamusimbi says small-scale farmers have no adequate access to market information which has contributed to briefcase businessmen taking advantage of them. Briefcase businessmen have invaded Mpongwe and are buying a 50 kilogramme bag of maize at K30, 000 disregarding the government floor prices of K45, 000.
According to Hamusimbi, in a presentation he made to stakeholders last week, Zambia is basically characterised by poor market and pricing discovery mechanisms.
Hamusimbi however said the introduction of agricultural market information services by ZNFU with other co-operating partners had enabled farmers to have more access to information which had helped to improve the marketing system in the country.
“The marketing system known as ZNFU 4455 has enabled farmers to know who is in the market to buy their products and what prices they are offering,” he said. “They are able to do this through the use of mobile phones.”
Hamusimbi said since the introduction of mobile trading, more farmers had been able to profitably sell their products and poverty had been reduced to some extent in rural areas.
“Since the introduction of the marketing system in 2006, we have so far had 24, 961 hits which have resulted in about 85 per cent trading success,” he said.
Hamusimbi added that so far, the marketing system was trading in about 14 commodities ranging from maize, beef, soya beans, goats and groundnuts.
“We so far have 94 active traders monthly and we hope to increase this number by the end of the year,” he said.
Hamusimbi said the marketing system was mainly being used by small-scale farmers.
“About 61 per cent of the activities on the system are transacted by small-scale farmers, 20 per cent local traders and 5 per cent commercial farmers,” he said.
Labels: COLLIARD HAMUSIMBI, DEVELOPMENT, FARMERS, MARKETING, ZNFU, ZNFU 4455
posted by MrK @ 4:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home