The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has announced that the crop-marketing season for this year is in progress and the agency is already on the market buying Non-Genetically Modified white maize, paddy rice and soya beans as announced earlier.
FRA Public Relations Coordinator John Chipandwe said all clients willing to sell their crops to the agency can deliver their produce to any nearest Food Reserve Agency Satellite Depot countrywide.
According to information made available to the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Chipandwe noted that as farmers take their crops to the nearest FRA depot, the agency wishes to urge them to ensure that they clean the crops from their homesteads to prevent congestion and lessen on the time they will spend at the depot.
Chipandwe said the agency also wishes to advise farmers countrywide who will be selling their crops not to sell all their harvest or produce as the marketing season progresses as national food security begins at household level.
He added that farmers are therefore encouraged to sell only their excess produce after putting aside adequate varieties of food for domestic future use.
The Food Reserve Agency earlier announced that it would be buying a 50kg bag of maize at K180 for the 2022 crop-marketing season, which is an increment of only K30 from last year. The agency intends to purchase at least 170, 000 metric tons of maize, 1, 500 metric tons of soya beans and 1, 000 metric tons of rice.
FRA purchased 947, 777.55 metric tons of maize valued at K2.8 billion, 121.60 metric tons of soya beans valued at K1.2 million and 656.80 metric tons of rice valued at K3.2 million in the 2021 crop marketing season.
