Govt should admit its failure to buy maize from farmers – Hamududu

Govt should admit its failure to buy maize from farmers – Hamududu
Written by George Zulu in Monze
Thursday, July 23, 2009 4:17:32 PM

THE government should admit its failure to buy maize from small-scale farmers and invite private companies to buy off the maize at a reasonable price, Bweengwa UPND member of parliament Highvie Hamududu has said.

In an interview in Monze, Hamududu said the government should instead invite millers and other viable private companies to buy maize at K65, 000 than watching farmers struggle to market the produce which would end up into unscrupulous businessmen's hands.

He said the government should come up with a system which would ensure that small-scale farmers in rural areas benefited in the agricultural sector by providing an external market to their produce.

Hamududu said for now, there was little the government was doing and had requested the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to buy small quantities of maize. He said FRA had already reached their target yet there was still plenty of maize in villages.

Hamududu said it was very unfortunate that the government had been telling millers not to buy maize when it did not have the capacity to buy the whole load from small-scale farmers through out the country.

Hamududu said farmers were in a mess because the government had failed to provide a suitable and sustainable market to respond to the market trends and demands of the staple food in the nation.

"Failure by government to buy maize will have a negative impact on this year's farming season. Most of the farmers have not sold off their produce and they don't have money. So these are some of the things government should be preoccupied with," he said.

The FRA in Monze, Mazabuka and other districts in the Southern Province has already reached its target of buying maize in this year's marketing season which was opened last week.

Mazabuka has already bought over 33 000 tonnes from seven satellite depots, while Monze has bought 43 000 tonnes in all the 10 satellite depots.

But a huge tonnage of maize is still uncollected from small-scale farmers in the rural areas.

Agriculture minister Dr Brian Chituwo has called on farmers to hold on to their maize grain because FRA would commence purchases soon.