Small Scale Farmers Development Agency says it is too early to start offloading Food Reserve Agency (FRA) maize to the private Millers.
President Edgar Lungu has directed the Food Reserve Agency to release 35,000 metric tons of maize to selected Millers on the Copperbelt Province in order to intervene in the shortage of Maize and Mealie Meal in the province.
SAFADA Director Boyd Mobwe tells Money FM News that it is unrealistic to offload the commodity to the private sector because Millers have always maintained that they have enough maize stocks within themselves.
Mr. Mobwe says Government’s decision to offload maize to some Miller on the Copperbelt is questionable because Millers have enough in stock.
“Small Scale Farmers Development Agency have told the nation several times that Zambia has to diversify maize commodity and we anticipate hunger in the country because of various factors such as export demand and climate change. But the private sector and government has denied the perception and concluded that Zambia has enough maize stocks to take us up to march 2019,” he said.
He has however commended government for intervention to avoid panicking and price distortion on the market and imposing an administrative maize export ban.
“It is very unfortunate that Zambia does not have adequate and reliable data base on crop focus and targetable marketing and trading policies and marketing mechanism and modalities to safe guard the country against unnecessary food shortages. Government has imposed a temporary administrative export ban of which SAFADA is commending government for such interventions but the private sector have bitterly complained as unfair deal in the liberalized marketing economy and propose that government should withdraw some trade restrictions,” he said.
He adds that government should not be offloading maize stocks to the private Millers anyhow and should bear in mind that the private sector is there to maximize profits and not save the people on social grounds.
“To address such challenges government should use the solar milling plants installed in various parts of the country than offloading maize to the private millers. Something must be done to address the situation besides offloading maize there must be proper arrangements,” said Mr. Mobwe.