There is need to address challenges in agriculture marketing – Chituwo

There is need to address challenges in agriculture marketing – Chituwo
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Saturday, September 26, 2009 6:04:41 PM

AGRICULTURE minister Brian Chituwo has said there is need to address challenges facing the marketing of agricultural commodities if the agricultural sector is to make a meaningful contribution to Zambia’s economic development.

During the Agriculture Consultative Forum (ACF) stakeholders’ meeting on the possibility of establishing a Public Private Partnership (PPP) marketing institution for Zambia in Lusaka on Wednesday, Dr Chituwo said the development of the agriculture industry was important to economic growth as well as poverty reduction.

“In this regard, development of a well-functioning agricultural market is seen as a necessary element towards achieving this economic development and marketing of agricultural commodities especially those produced by small-scale farmers has continued to be a challenge to both government and private sector and has probably stifled growth in the sector for a long time now,” Dr Chituwo said.

“Since the dissolution of National Agricultural Marketing (NAMBoard) in 1989 and subsequent transfer of marketing functions particularly for maize to the Zambia Cooperative Federation, agriculture marketing in the country has not been very encouraging.”

He said the establishment of the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in 1995 partially responded to the problems created by the lack of an agricultural marketing institution.

“While FRA is intended to purchase designated crops for strategic food reserves, there are still problems in the market with regard to general crop marketing, especially for crops not designated as well as other commodities,” said Dr Chituwo.

“In this regard, I implore all stakeholders to critically analyse the situation and chart the way forward towards creating a PPP marketing institution and I strongly believe that some of the modalities of the dissolved NAMBoard can still find room in the proposed institution set up.”