Grain marketing disarray
THE disarray prevailing in grain marketing must be arrested expeditiously to prevent imminent calamity. In this regard, we fully support the proposal for a high level indaba between the Zambian National Farmers Union and Food Reserve Agency to sort out the pricing and logistical nightmare that has developed.
We wish to go further and suggest that all cooperative unions must be invited to this meeting to chart a course in which an orderly, rational and well planned marketing programme covering all producers can be formulated to leave very little to chance or indeed individual greed and caprice.
The 500,000 metric tonnes restriction on the quantity that the Food Reserve Agency will purchase creates a very serious bottleneck in the management of the huge 3.6 million tonnes of maize which theoretically are in the hands of peasant farmers.
The offtake leaves a whopping 3.1 million tonnes which must be collected, stored and if necessary exported. This is totally impossible without an intervening hand that has the logistics, outreach and capacity to ensure that the full value of the crop is realised either through export or indeed local sales.
The vulgaries of the market will most certainly not minister or let alone empathise with the dynamics pertaining to intractable problems affecting maize marketing.
It is very clear that as a nation we are missing the services of a grain or indeed agricultural marketing authority that will serve the best interests of the producer and ultimately the consumer.
It is pointless to invoke the efficacy of the market in an environment where disparities in information, capacities and abilities exists.
A perfect market will only operate in a perfect system where parties compete equitably with full knowledge and information. It is unfair to expect a farmer in far flung Shangombo with 10 bags of maize can be expected to participate fully and fairly in a grain market which has bigger players including the FRA are participating.
That’s why most developing countries have state controlled grain marketing boards whose role is to buy and sell a range of products thereby guaranteeing a basic price from which the producers can expect to earn for their labour.
It is not the price of K60.00 alone that is worrying, but rather the entire marketing structure which has left briefcase buyers to dominate at the expense of producers.
There must be a system in place either through the farmers’ union, cooperatives, grain marketers or indeed the smallscale farmers association that brings together the concerns of the producers and has the capacity to effectively intervene and therefore level the playing ground. There must be some semblance of logistical planning to administer agriculture produce.
This is not the case at the moment and the danger is that further confusion, demoralisation and a general lack of support will result in more smallscale farmers being edged out of the market and ultimately out of their cash crop business on which they depend for their livelihood thereby creating an immediate social crisis.
The bumper harvest this year should not be a curse but must be turned into a blessing if all concerned parties can exercise their mind in examining and therefore identifying the most effective manner in which the grain at national level can be purchased at a reasonable price and if need be exported at a competitive price to such areas as East Africa that are afflicted by drought.
No single grain should be allowed to go to waste, just as no single farmer should be made to feel worthless and uncared for because the system is heartless.