DON’T ABANDON SOYA BEANS

GOVERNMENT’S decision not to buy soya beans from farmers has left them in a vulnerable situation and consigned them to more poverty.

The decision is a betrayal to the farmers who heeded the government’s call to diversify as opposed to growing maize only.

Government cannot claim that the farmers who grow soya beans will have a ready market from the private sector.

The experience that farmers have had dealing with the private sector is nothing to sing about. It has been a situation based on exploiting farmers to sell their produce at below market prices.

Government, through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has been the lead buyer of farmers’ produce, be it maize, soya beans, rice and a host of other crops.

The prices that the FRA offers to the farmers act as a benchmark especially for the small-scale farmers and help them realise a reasonable income from their investment.

Thus, the government should rescind its decision not to buy soya beans from farmers because it has the potential to kill farmers and discourage crop diversification, says Small Scale Farmers Development Agency Executive director, Boyd Moobwe.

Mr Moobwe also noted that when the government through the FRA sets a price at which they would buy a particular product at, it sets the tone for the private sector to which one was the desired price.

Mr Moobwe is right that with Government showing no interest in buying soya beans from farmers during this year’s farming marketing season, the private sector would offer prices that were exploitative and the farmers would incur huge losses.

The Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) is also disappointed that the FRA will not be buying soya beans from farmers for the 2023 marketing season when most farmers had resorted to growing crop because of the late delivery and non-availability of fertiliser.

ZNFU president Jervis Zimba, says it is disappointing that soya beans would not be part of the FRA strategic reserves this marketing season when farmers in far flung areas had embraced crop diversification with a record bumper harvest.

While we commend the government for raising the price at which FRA will buy maize from farmers – K280 from last year’s K180 – it must not desert those farmers who have gone into soya beans farming in a big way.

As Mr Moobwe pointed out, “It’s unfair for Government not to buy soya beans from the farmers especially at a time when production has increased because of the good price the government offered in the last marketing season.”

We do not think Government made this position from an informed position. It would not have done so if it was aware of the growing number of farmers who have invested in soya beans.

But with this harsh decision, all their hopes of making a realistic return from their labour have been dashed.

“What good will it be to abandon soya beans farmers at crop marketing, having oriented them to growing soya beans as an alternative crop which is also good for the soils in crop rotation? This development should be re-visited,” said Mr Zimba.

We feel this this is one of those policy decisions that tend to make the government unpopular and it is not too late to hear the cries from the farmers.

Why should the soya beans farmers be left behind?