Maravi

Maize buyers are duping farmers, says Kabwe DC
By Isaac Zulu in Kabwe
Tue 06 Aug. 2013, 14:00 CAT

KABWE district commissioner Patrick Chishala has advised farmers in the area not to sell their produce to bogus businessmen. In an interview in Kabwe, Chishala said small-scale farmers should sell their produce to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) at a reasonable price. Chishala said the government, through the FRA, had opened eleven satellite depots in Kabwe and was targeting to buy 250,000 x 50 kilogramme bags of maize in this maize marketing season.

"Farmers should be cautious with these briefcase businessmen that are going round farming areas, buying farm produce at a giveaway price," said Chishala.

"After toiling hard, our small-scale farmers are being duped, which is very unfortunate. These briefcase businessmen are using malfunctional scales when buying maize from farmers and yet the FRA is using scales that are not malfunctional. FRA is using scales that are perfect and is buying maize at a good price. We are a pro-poor government and we are committed to addressing challenges being faced by our small-scale farmers."

He said he was currently impressed with the response from farmers so far.
Chishala added that the government would not delay payments to farmers that were currently supplying maize to FRA.

"This time around, there will be no delays in payments," said Chishala. "We want to ensure that farmers are paid on time in order to ensure that they plan and purchase farming inputs in readiness for the next farming season."

Labels: FRA, MAIZE, PATRICK CHISHALA

posted by MrK @ 5:19 PM