Exploitation of small-scale farmers worries Commodity Task Force

Exploitation of small-scale farmers worries Commodity Task Force
Written by Florence Bupe
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 3:37:09 PM

THE Commodity Task Force has complained that millers were allegedly exploiting small-scale farmers in the grain marketing exercise. And the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has explained its present absence in the maize purchasing exercise, saying this is as a result of high moisture content in maize.

During a discussion with the Zambia Competition Commission (ZCC, Commodity Task Force chairperson Maxwell Mulondiwa complained that millers were exploiting small- scale farmers by buying their maize for as low as K50,000 per 50 kilogramme bag instead of the recommended price of K65,000 as announced by the FRA.

He called on the ZCC to ensure that unfair trade was curbed during the maize marketing exercise.

“Grain traders and millers have ganged up and are paying as little as K50,000 for 50 kilogrammes of maize. Small-scale farmers have no bargaining power and are being exploited with the blessing of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,” Mulondiwa charged. “This is a violation of the fair trading Act.”

He challenged ZCC to investigate what he termed as a curtail among the millers and grain traders aimed at exploiting the small-scale farmers.

Mulondiwa said better policies needed to be instituted to protect farmers from exploitation. And in response, ZCC executive director Thula Kaira acknowledged that the problems affecting the crop marketing season this year were huge.

“This year, the problem of crop marketing has become big. FRA hasn’t bought a single bag of grain from the farmers, and they’re selling their produce at very low prices out of desperation,” Kaira said. “The absence so far of FRA in the crop purchasing exercise has given way to briefcase buyers to exploit the poor farmers.”

But FRA food reserve and marketing coordinator Philip Kabwe insisted that FRA had not yet started buying maize grain from small-scale farmers because the grain moisture content was still high.

He also explained that the K65,000 floor price was just a guide for the farmers to peg their produce prices, but that it was not binding for other players in the market.

“Our price as FRA is K65,000 per 50 kilogramme bag of maize, but it should be understood that we have other players in the market. We are planning to buy 110,000 metric tonnes of maize this year, but we will only move in to purchase the maize grain once the moisture content has come down to the stipulated 12.5 per cent, and this will be any time this month (July),” said Kabwe.