Maravi

Expert urges quick action on export of excess maize

COMMENT - What's the hurry? How about stockpiling the maize to increase food security?

Expert urges quick action on export of excess maize
By Fridah Zinyama
Mon 21 June 2010, 04:00 CAT

A crop marketing expert has advised the government to move quickly over the sale of 1.3 million metric tonnes surplus maize the country holds resulting from the bumper harvest recorded this year.

And Food Reserve Agency (FRA) public relations manager Mwamba Siame has said the government has so far only released about K16 billion of the K100 billion which had been allocated for the purchase of 300,000 metric tonnes of maize this season.

Agriculture minister Peter Daka insists that the government would only participate on the market through FRA but that the private sector should play a more active role in mopping up the excess maize.

In an interview, Graham Rae said the marketing of excess maize was a national issue which needed urgent government attention.

“Government should move quickly and sign bilateral trade agreements with countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Angola and Zimbabwe which are in need of maize,” he said.

Rae said government should be very pro-active in dealing with the marketing of this year’s surplus maize as it might determine the country’s future production of the crop.

“Countries like Malawi have already moved and sold their maize to countries like Sudan,” said Rae.

“If government does not act quickly, all the available markets which the maize could have been sold would have been taken by other countries in the region like Malawi, South Africa and Kenya which have produced a surplus of maize.”

And Siame said the government would only buy about 300,000 metric tonnes of maize from the farmers and would let market fundamentals to take care of the one million tonnes.

“The law of demand and supply will take care of the rest of the maize which will not be bought by FRA,” she said. “There are millers, grain traders and stock-feed producers who can and will take care of the surplus maize which the market currently has.”

The lack of willingness by the government to mop up the excess maize on the market has agitated local farmers, prompting Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) to call for the re-introduction of the marketing board to oversee the purchase and eventual sale of agricultural commodities.

Labels: FRA, GRAHAM RAE, MAIZE, MWAMBA SIAME

posted by MrK @ 5:34 AM