WE CAN’T WAIT
Desperate farmers ‘give away’ maize at K3
- Desperate farmers selling maize at between K3 and K5 per kg
- Farmers say they are doing this because of the harsh economic conditions
- Central Province Minister Mwabashike Nkulukusa has appealed to the farmers to wait for and sell to FRA
- Some traders bartering maize with clothes, bed linen assorted household utensils.
WE HAVE no choice but to sell our maize to the private traders because we cannot wait for the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) while we are broke and hungry, some small-scale farmers in Central Province have said.
Droves of private gain traders known as ‘briefcase buyers’ have descended on Kabwe, Mkushi, Serenje, Chibombo and Kapiri Mposhi districts buying maize from desperate farmers at between K3 and K5 for a kilogram and less.
This is far below the market price from the last crop marketing season of K6 and more.
Some of the small-scale farmers have already begun harvesting their maize, selling it to the private buyers without waiting for the moisture content to reduce for them to sell the grain to the FRA.
Brave Haantinga, a peasant farmer from Kizito, said in an interview many farmers in the area like him were harvesting and selling their maize early out of desperation because of the harsh economic conditions.
“What can we do? Wait for FRA while we are broke and have no relish in our homes? The economy is biting badly, and we cant just wait while there are all these people with money and all kinds of the goods we need,” Haatinga said.
Some small-scale farmers in Mkushi have accused the private maize dealers in the area of tampering with weighing scales, which is affecting their payments.
In Itala, Leonard Kunda, one of the affected farmers, said the practice would expose the farmers who are already selling their produce at very low prices to further losses.
“What has happened is that these people have come with scales which they have tampered with and we have no way of pinning them. We don’t have a choice, really, but to seel to them,” Kunda said.
The briefcase buyers in Mkushi, Luano and Serenje districts are buying the maize at between K4 and K6 per kilogram.
Traders from all walks of life have also entered remote parts of Kapiri Mposhi and Chibombo districts buying maize at giveaway prices, taking advantage of the desperation among the broke farmers who badly need cash to meet immediate needs.
Some of the traders, mostly women, are conducting barter trade with assorted merchandise such as clothes, bed linen and assorted household utensils, including pots, plates, cups, plastic sandals and many others.
The price of the staple food in Serenje and Chibombo districts is currently pegged between K3 and K5 per kilogram.
This has, however, alarmed the government in the region.
Central Province Minister Mwabashike Nkulukusa has appealed to the farmers to exercise patience and wait for the FRA to announce the official maize floor price to avoid being exploited.
Nkulukusa, who also serves as Katuba MP and UPND Central Province chairperson, reminded the farmers who benefited from the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) of their obligation to sell part of their maize to FRA in line with the terms of the support they received.
He said the farmers had a shared responsibility in safeguarding national food security.
“We have stocks of maize in all FRA depots across the province which farmers can access at a reasonable price of K330 per K50 kilogram bag bearing in mind that most farmers are on Social Cash Transfer (SCT) and can use such monies to avert hunger as opposed to channeling it towards luxurious things,” Nkulukusa said.
Government has not yet flagged off this year’s crop marketing season as well as announced the floor price for maize.
