FARMERS SERIOUSLY SHORTCHANGED
Dear Editor
Our farmers, especially those growing maize have been seriously short-changed by the Food Reserve Agency. I would even support them going on strike because nobody can accept to be paid K60 per 50-kg bag of maize down from K85 from the previous year.
This is grossly unfair.
The FRA would have served the interests of the country better by not announcing the floor price because farmers and consumers would have been negotiating on the basis of market control. In fact the aim of the floor price was to ensure that farmers were not exploited by briefcase buyers.
The situation has now changed. By announcing the K60 price the FRA has condemned the farming community to this market. The smallscale farmers who are the majority of producers have no choice but sell at this price or remain with their crops.
In all fairness,s this matter should be reconsidered and a more meaningful solution arrived at. Those whose duty it is to fix prices must reflect on their folly and go back to Government to find a way in which farmers can be helped. It will not help us if farmers decide to vote with their feet and quit producing maize. We will be the losers.
It is not fair that people who are paid salaries from the government should decide to reduce the earnings of people who produce food as their main area of economic activity.
If we are going to encourage people to go into farming, we should give the farmers the morale and motivation to do so by ensuring that the prices of their products are paid for at economic prices. They should not be the ones to subsidise consumption by the urban elite who solely dependent on salaries for their livelihood and maintenance.
Where did the FRA get the K60 price from? From all accounts, this has nothing to do with the cost of production, it is simply a figure plucked from the air and agreed with the Ministry of Finance which finances them.
Farmers, especially those that are in semi and full time commercial farming are not sponsored by the government. They have to buy all their inputs. Therefore the price must be reflective of cost recovery.
It is okay for the price of mealie meal to be low but at the same time there must be care and attention for the people who produce otherwise the outcome will not be good for all.
Solomon Malembeka.