MAIZE PRICES TO RISE - SAFADA

IN line with the rising cost of living and transport, farmers expect the government to buy maize at a favourable price of at least K200 per 50 kilogramme bag this coming maize marketing season, Small-Scale Farmers Development Agency (SAFADA) executive director, Boyd Moobwe, has said.

Mr Moobwe said buying the maize at K200 was the only way the farmers could benefit from their produce.

He said last year the government was buying maize at K150 per 50kg but from that time a lot of things have changed in terms of costs and the price could not be called favourable anymore.

Mr Moobwe said a K50 rise from the price the government was buying maize last year would put famers in a better position to prepare for the next farming season in terms of fertiliser and other farming inputs.

He said if the price remained at K150 per 50 kg it would contribute to hunger because if a bag of fertiliser was now selling at K1, 000 or more it would mean that farmers would have to sell more than 10 bags of maize for them to afford a bag of fertiliser.

Mr Moobwe said farmers would have nothing to take home because everything would be swallowed in the budget for the next farming season if the prices this marketing season were not increased.

He said the farmers were also going to incur transport costs which have gone up tremendously due to the increase in the pump prices of fuel.

Mr Moobwe said that was the reason why the Food Reserve Agency should put all the factors affecting the economy and the farmers before setting the prices.

He said President Hakainde Hichilema was trying to engage the fertiliser companies so that they could sell fertiliser at a much higher price but people must not forget that those were private companies and they import the fertiliser at a cost which means that they have the liberty to price it their own way.

Mr Moobwe said the only way what the president was suggesting could be achieved was by subsidising fertiliser.

He also said it was high time the farmers moved away from the dependence on chemical fertilisers because there were organic ways they could improve their yields that were less expensive.