Maravi

Govt owes farmers K400bn

Govt owes farmers K400bn
By Moses Kuwema, Christopher Miti and Henry Chibulu
Sun 12 Sep. 2010, 04:00 CAT

GOVERNMENT owes small-scale farmers over K400 billion for the maize that has been sold to the Food Reserve Agency, ZNFU president Jervis Zimba has disclosed.

And unpaid maize farmers last Friday stormed the Chipata district commissioner’s office to register their disappointment over Food Reserve Agency (FRA)’s delay to pay them for the maize supplied.

Meanwhile, UPND Magoye member of parliament Ben Mweemba has expressed fears that thousands of bags of maize piled outside Food Reserve Agency (FRA) storage sheds may go to waste in his constituency because of the government’s failure to provide adequate storage facilities.

During the Mkushi Farmers Association annual general meeting on Friday, Zimba appealed to the small-scale farmers to exercise patience.

“…I want to appeal to the Ministry of Finance to ensure that this specific amount of money is with FRA so that FRA pays transporters to move the maize to holding depots or storage facilities, at the moment all the maize which is across the country is in satellite depots and if you don’t move that maize from satellite depots to holding depots most of the maize around will be soaked,” he said.

Zimba said with the way things were moving in terms of maize marketing, the country was likely to experience a serious reduction in maize production next year.

“Some of these problems we have now have been caused by the Ministry of Agriculture for not speeding up the process of lifting the export ban.

Because when you have an export market it means we are stabilising the production, you know that there is market out there, the local millers will pay the right price then the exports will go.

We might be okay as a nation with this surplus, next year we have no problem because we have something to eat but come around 2012, we might see imports coming through…,” he said.

And Zimba has said ZNFU was not happy with the way the millers were playing games with regard to the Statutory Instrument (SI) on wheat imports.

Zimba said the millers’ insistence on lifting the ban on imports of wheat was a direct challenge to President Rupiah Banda who issued the directive to have the SI in place.

And the farmers in Chipata protested at the district commissioner’s office over non-payment of money by FRA for the maize sold to the agency.

The farmers who were drawn from different areas, with the majority being from Mgubudu in Chipangali Constituency, said they were tired of unfulfilled government promises as regards payment.

One of the farmers Gershom Phiri said it was unfortunate that they sold their maize in July and that they had not yet been paid up to now.

“What is disappointing is that these people from government promised to pay us after 14 days but the 14 days elapsed. I don’t know whether we didn’t get them clearly; maybe they meant after 14 months, or what? We are here to get our money,” Phiri said.

He said government should be clear whether it had failed to help farmers.

Phiri said he sold 306 by 50 kilogramme bags of maize to the FRA. Another farmer Mark Zulu said the government was not helping farmers by delaying payment for the maize they sold to FRA.

“The promise was that they were to pay us after 14 days but now we are talking of one month and some weeks. You know we need to pay school fees for our children while others have no uniform. So this is very disappointing,” Zulu said.

He said the delay to pay them would affect their performance in next farming season.

Zulu said the farmers sensed that it was not going to be possible to be paid on Friday when the FRA agents, the District Farmers Association, refused to give them the GRN’s (Goods Received Notes).

Later, Zulu had a closed-door meeting with farmers and the district commissioner which lasted close to two hours. One of the farmers who attended the meeting said the district commissioner promised them that they would be paid their money.

“I think he was just cooling us down because despite what has been said in the meeting, we haven’t been paid our money. But he assured us something, we will wait and see what happens,” the source said.

Before going into the meeting, district commissioner Moses Nyirenda, who did not expect reporters, said he would only talk to reporters after the meeting.

And Mweemba said in Mazabuka last week that all storage facilities were full, forcing FRA to pile up the maize outside the sheds. He said FRA officials in the district had failed to provide satisfactory answers to him on the measures the government had put in place to protect the grain from being soaked, realising that the rainy season was approaching.

Mweemba said there was no cause for the government to celebrate the bumper harvest because once the rains start, all the maize would be destroyed due to lack of adequate storage facilities.

He also took a swipe at the FRA for delaying to pay farmers who supplied maize to the agency about three months ago.

He revealed that information he obtained from FRA had established that some farmers may be paid their money in January next year because the government had no funds for the marketing exercise.

Mweemba said it was unfair for the government to mistreat farmers by not paying them on time because they needed to use the same money to purchase inputs for the next farming season.

He has since urged government to give farmers promissory notes that will enable them to buy inputs from suppliers because subjecting them to waiting for next year would disadvantage them.

Mweemba observed that delaying to pay farmers would frustrate their desire to continue growing maize.

Labels: BEN MWEEMBA, DEBT, FRA, JERVIS ZIMBA, ZNFU

posted by MrK @ 2:42 AM