Maravi

Agricultural input prices will remain high, observes Zukas

Agricultural input prices will remain high, observes Zukas
By Joan Chirwa
Saturday August 16, 2008 [04:00]

FORMER agriculture and co-operatives minister Simon Zukas has observed that agricultural input prices will remain high in the next farming seasons, with no hopes of retreating to past price levels this year. And Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) president Guy Robinson has advised farmers to critically consider producing crops that do not depend on fertilisers.

During an Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) discussion themed, “Zambia and the global food crisis” in Lusaka on Thursday, Zukas said the rising costs of agricultural inputs called for increased food production in Zambia.

“Input prices have been rising and they will never get back to the past price levels any time soon,” Zukas said.

Fertilizer prices have risen three-fold since the last farming season, with a 50 kilogramme bag of the commodity selling at almost K200,000 in a number of areas.

Zukas further commended the government for increasing budgetary allocation to the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) for input subsidies.

Finance and national planning minister Ng’andu Magande this week announced that an additional K300 billion would be allocated to the FSP for agricultural subsidies to small-scale farmers, amidst rising costs of fertiliser.

And Robinson said the rising cost of fertiliser presented an opportunity for farmers to diversify their crop production.

“This is the time for farmers to start producing crops that require less fertiliser. Sometimes we focus too much on maize and forget other crops. This should not be the case,” Robinson said.

“Farmers this season may resist producing maize because of the high prices of farming inputs. We have no time to wait…we need to find solutions to the problems facing the agriculture sector.”

And Food Reserve Agency (FRA) chairman Costain Chilala warned that food prices were likely to surge further between September and March.

“This is because farmers would have sold all their maize and getting into another farming season,” said Chilala.

Labels: EAZ, GUY ROBINSON, ZNFU

posted by MrK @ 4:27 AM