The National Association for Smallholder Farmers in Zambia-NASFAZ has disclosed that farmers in Vubwi and Mambwe districts of eastern province have started selling their soya beans at give away prices of about K150 per 50kg bag, when the price is expected to hit K500.
Small holder farmers Association chairperson Dr. Frank Kayula expressed disappointment that unscrupulous buyers are going into Mambwe and Vubwi to buy soya beans from farmers at K150 per 50kg bag even before the crop matures, a situation he has described as theft.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Kayula said the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has not set this year’s price for soya beans and going by last year’s price, which was K10 per kg, this year’s price is projected be higher, but some cash desperate farmers are currently selling their crop at less than K3 per kg.
He explained that the buyers are paying for the soya beans now, which they will collect once harvested adding that the capitalistic buyers are buying it cheaply as they want to make a lot of profit out of it once the marketing season is open, because soya beans is on high demand which is unfair to the uniformed small holder farmers.
“We just got a report from the cooperative leadership in Mambwe and said let’s warn the farmers all over the country because in the past, we have seen a situation where even standing maize, still green, not even yet mature, unscrupulous buyers go there and pay for it at very low prices”, he said.
Kayula said it is unfortunate that the smallholder farmers tend to forget that they suffer to produce their crops, noting that they should put into consideration all the cost of production and work that goes into farming before selling their commodities at low prices simply because they are desperate to have cash right now.
He has advised farmers all over the country to diversify and venture into other cash generating activities such as fish farming, chicken rearing as well as growing vegetables which can earn them an income throughout the year unlike waiting for their crops to mature once a year.
“Why don’t they do other farming activities to make some extra income, they should get that money as a loan and pay it back at bank rates and sell their crops to people giving them better money. Farmers should only sell when the crops are ready, so those are capitalists are being unfair and taking advantage of the farmers”.
He described the practice as “blatant theft” and whoever is doing that to farmers is a thief and we will engage the relevant authorities, he said.
The lack of tailored Agro financing remains a challenge in Zambia with most emerging and local farmers having limited to no access to affordable finance. Financing from banks is mostly availed to large scale commercial farmers while micro-finance institutions are charging exorbitantly high interest rates.
