Maravi

FRA assures farmers over unpaid dues

FRA assures farmers over unpaid dues
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT

THE FRA has assured all farmers that supplied maize grain to the agency that they would all be paid their dues by mid-November.

And Food Reserve Agency (FRA) executive director Dr Anthony Mwanaumo has disclosed that the agency has received export inquiries from four Southern African Development Community (SADC) states - Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Botswana and Namibia.

Speaking to journalists after a tour of the FRA storage sheds at Chambishi on Friday afternoon, Dr Mwanaumo said there was no need for farmers to panic because resources to pay their dues were available.

“We’ve paid over K900 billion and we are remaining with about K100 billion. We are going to pay off all the farmers,” he said. “There is no need to panic. By the end of the season, we would have bought slightly over 800,000 tonnes of maize and spent about a trillion kwacha.”

And in response to complaints that the country’s bumper harvest had remained with farmers because FRA had not bought their maize, Dr Mwanaumo said all genuine farmers had delivered their maize to the agency.

He also said immediately after paying off all the farmers by mid-November, FRA would review the season to identify its shortcomings and note areas of improvement.

And Dr Mwanaumo said export prospects were very bright and that the export inquiries that the agency had received were actually more than the maize they had in stock.

He said exports were good because they attracted foreign exchange and enhanced economic growth.

Meanwhile, Dr Mwanaumo said FRA had bought about 1,380 metric tonnes of rice from Western, North Western, Luapula, Northern and Eastern provinces. He added that all rice farmers had been paid a total of K2 billion.

Dr Mwanaumo said FRA also offered to buy cassava from farmers but that no farmer had supplied the commodity to the agency, saying the private sector were probably offering a better price for the crop.

Labels: ANTHONY MWANAUMO, FRA

posted by MrK @ 4:40 PM