ZNFU calls for practical approach to small-scale farmers’ problems

ZNFU calls for practical approach to small-scale farmers’ problems
Written by Florence Bupe
Monday, September 07, 2009 2:51:50 PM

THE Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has called for a practical approach to problems affecting small-scale farmers in the country.

And Mansa District Farmers Association chairperson George Mwila has urged the government to normalise cross-border trade with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and allow small-scale farmers in the province to export their grain to that country.

Officiating at the launch of the ZNFU regional office in Mansa last Friday, ZNFU president Jervis Zimba said the problems facing the agricultural sector, particularly the small-scale farming community required a massive and decisive joint action by all stakeholders.

“The union has long observed that the problems facing farmers today, which are ranging from production, input access, agricultural finance and marketing are well known but what is lacking is a practical approach to resolve them,” Zimba said. “Put simply, implementation is lacking.”

Zimba said the small-scale farming sector had been strained further through the insistence of the local government ministry to make them pay council levies.

He observed that the use of the levies which the farmers were made to pay remained unclear.

He disclosed that the union had since proposed that 60 per cent of all the council levies received from farmers should go towards the rehabilitation of infrastructure that would benefit the agricultural sector, such as the road network.

“Last year, the union and the local government ministry established a joint working group which reviewed various council levies which farmers are forced to pay. Farmers will agree with me that in the recent past, council levies have become a huge cost being incurred by farmers when transferring their produce to markets,” Zimba said.

He said some district councils were charging as high as K7,000 per 50- kilogramme bag of maize for farmers to get their produce to the market.

Zimba further charged that the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had proved ineffective and incapable in offering market solutions to small-scale farmers.

“FRA both as a strategic food reserve and marketing institution has proved ineffective and incapable in providing market solutions. The problems of marketing have become ancient, perennial and infinitum,” said Zimba.

And Mwila has said DRC offers a ready market for farmers in Luapula Province, and called on the government to facilitate trade between the two regions.

Meanwhile, Luapula Province permanent secretary Jazzman Chikwakwa has called for the speedy payment of farmers’ dues to allow them to access farming inputs for the next season.