The Small Scale Farmers Development Agency-SAFADA has expressed disappointment over the Food Reserve Agency-FRA’s decision to peg the maize floor price for the 2022 crop-marketing season at K160.
SAFADA Executive Director Boyd Moobwe explained that last year, farmers spent between K10, 000 and K13, 000 to produce 40 bags (50kgs) of maize on one hectare adding that this includes 8 bags of fertilizer with one bag of fertilizer costing between K500 and K800, 20kg bag of seed, ploughing, weeding, transportation and all the other expenses.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Moobwe said the farmers were expecting government to buy the maize at atleast K200 in order to help farmers recover their expenses and make a profit.
“We are very disappointed, we thought dependable organisations can side with farmers but it’s like others are very happy with the price. An increment of K10 per 50kg, as for us farmers that is a very big mockery taking into consideration the cost of inputs. Fertilizer is getting expensive and this year it will be more than K1000 per 50kg bag and the farmer is selling a bag of maize at K160”, he said.
Moobwe has appealed to government to consider offering a fair price because farmers will be demoralized and some may decide not to grow maize in the next farming season, which will affect the production of maize.
He mentioned that government might be offering such a price because it subsidizes the price of fertilizer for farmers under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) but only about 1000 farmers are under the FISP programme and all the other farmers have to bear all the costs by themselves.
