Farmers’ winter maize meet set

WE will go ahead with our urgent meeting on Wednesday because there has been no consultations on the cost reflective pricing of early maize with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has maintained.

ZNFU Media and public relations manager Calvin Kaleyi said in the wake of lack of any feedback from Government over an earlier agreement that it would purchase the maize at an agreed price or allow farmers to export, it had become prudent to have a way forward over the matter.

“The Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) has convened an urgent meeting to be held on Wednesday 9th October 2019 to re-strategize on the issue of early maize growing because there still has not been any feedback from Government on the way forward,” Mr. Kaleyi said.

He said so far, there have been no consultations on the cost reflective pricing of early maize if it is to be grown and no commitment made on the purchase modalities including export prospects. “Farmers are very conscious of the high cost of producing maize under partial irrigation and artificial drying arrangements hence no farmer will rush to grow early maize unless there is a transparent system for marketing and pricing mechanisms arrived at in a consultative manner so that there is a win-win outcome for all players in the value chain,” he said. He said due to the high production costs involved in early maize production which have been exacerbated by the impending electricity tariff adjustment, mitigation measures were inevitable. “We must make mention that the high cost of inputs, recent increase in fuel prices and the pending increase in electricity tariffs all add to the cost of production hence the need for mitigating measures,” he said.