Govt won't subsidise commercial farmers, says Magande

Govt won't subsidise commercial farmers, says Magande
By Sydney Mungala and Joan Chirwa
Monday August 18, 2008 [04:00]

FINANCE minister Nga'ndu Magande has said the government will not subsidise commercial farmers in the country as the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) is meant to support small-scale farmers. And the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) is this week expected to convene a meeting over the government’s decision to increase agricultural subsidies to small-scale farmers. Magande explained that large-scale farmers existed for commercial purposes.

Reacting to Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) president Guy Robinson’s comments that the government should also subsidise commercial farmers, Magande stressed that no where in the world do governments subsidise the operations of commercial farmers.

“We are not going to do that because commercial farmers, as the name suggests, produce for commercial purposes. They know what they are in it for because the meaning of commercial is clear to everyone,” he said.

Magande said the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) was designed for small-scale farmers to encourage them produce more, especially that they were struggling with high production costs.

“There is nowhere in the world where commercial farmers are subsidised so why should we do that? This programme was meant to benefit small-scale farmers who we want to encourage to produce more and besides, they contribute the largest share to the national food basket. And we only subsidise them because they need help,” he said.

Magande said the FSP was clearly laid out to benefit small-scale farmers and that would not change.

“That programme is very clear, it was meant for small-scale farmers to support them so that they produce more food to feed the country and that is not about to change,” said Magande.

And sources have disclosed that ZNFU officials were planning an urgent meeting this week to press the government over its decision to grant additional agricultural subsidies to small-scale farmers.

“The issue here is that the small-scale farmers will be heavily subsidised by the government. So their production cost will be far less than that which commercial farmers will incur, so there are disparities which will distort pricing of the crop next year,” said the sources.