FRA gets overwhelming support

By SIMOM MUNTEMBA in Mpika

THE Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has received overwhelming response from farmers in Muchinga Province where the sale of maize is going on well despite the price of the commodity being pegged at K60 per 50kg bag.

A random check by the Daily Nation at various FRA satellite depots in the Province found farmers waiting for their turn to transact their commodities.

And FRA executive director Chola Kafwabulula said no maize bought will go to waste this time around as the agency has put up mechanism to secure it.

He said that it was unfortunate that in the past government lost huge sums of money in the wastage of crops, adding that the agency erected some secured storage facilities to ensure the grains were safe,

He further said that the agency was using certified and calibrated scales throughout the country to ensure farmers were not exploited.

Mr Kafwabulula who is in the province to tour all satellite depots in Muchinga to check on the quality and quantity of maize bought so far, expressed happiness that the agency would soon meet the target.

The executive director urged farmers that were still holding on to the commodity to sell to it during the on-going buying exercise which will end next month to avoid losing out.

"As FRA , when we are buying maize from farmers unlike others, we are so transparent that we don't want to buy less or more than a 50kg. It has to be exactly 50kg.,” he said

He said maize bought from farmers in all satellite depots would be moved to secured storage facilities like Finkuli depot in Lavashimanda district before being transported to Lusaka to avoid crop wastage.

Meanwhile, some of the farmers talked to said they opted to sell their maize to FRA because of the good scaling system, adding that they did not incur any transport cost because FRA bought their commodity in depots that were located near their homes.