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The Food Reserve Agency states that there is a risk of food insecurity due to declining harvests and low prices offered to farmers by the agency and local industries.
And FRA announced that she will buy a 50 kilogram bag of corn at K65, an increase of only K5 over the price floor last season. The agency also announced that she would buy a 50 kg bag of K130 soybeans and a 40 kg bag of Paddy Rice in the K70.
Announcing the prices of his crops for this marketing campaign at a press conference held yesterday in Lusaka Director Chola Kafwabulula said that the year was going to be difficult for his agency because of the factors in
"What is happening in the region is having a critical impact on our food security, and yes, there is a drop in our production this year and according to the reports we receive from some neighboring countries. , [they] offers a slightly better price than FRA and some industries …. So, for this reason, we are going to have a competitive year.It will not be a very easy year for us because there is a decline in production " , did he declare.
Kafwabulula said the agency had exported 100,000 tons of corn last season and raised $ 13 million. Treasure.
"Currently, we have about 300,000 metric tons." Basically, to achieve food security, we only need to buy about 200,000 metric tons, so we know we're safe for this year. we will always go ahead and try to reach our goal of 500,000 metric tons, "Kafwabulula said.
"We were exporting maize in the last half of last year.We were allowed to export 100,000 tons of corn and we went as far as East Africa, in the Great Lakes region, in Zimbabwe and Botswana, so last year we exported something, but now we're in a new season, and with this export we've managed to raise $ 13 million were handed over to the Treasury. "
At the same briefing, FRA Board Chair Joe Simachela announced that the agency would buy about 500,000 tons of grain. political guidelines. He also stated that FRA would not sell grain to millers, as it expected the private sector to fill the gap on surplus stocks left on the market.
Simachela said FRA would determine prices for 2018 badysis and survey of existing farm gateways with its key stakeholders.
"Government policy guidelines remain supported to drive FRA's flow of operations during the 2018 season and include the following: FRA will be limited to the purchase of 500,000 metric tons of grain in As a national strategic food reserve in peripheral areas, FRA will no longer sell grain to millers as millers should buy their own stocks, FRA will improve community sales and sell to vulnerable communities and programs such as the Management Unit and Disaster Mitigation, the Ministry of Education, home school feeding programs, correctional facilities, hospices, schools and hospitals FRA will sell grain, where appropriate , at cost-reflective prices in order to avoid subsidies and operate within the limits of budget allocations.The results of the survey on the The 2017/2018 crop forecasts indicate maize production of 2.394 million tonnes, 43.063 tonnes of paddy rice and 302.720 tonnes of soybeans, "said Simachela
. implicit as the floor price for the marketing season.
Simachela added that FRA expects farmers to adhere to the general practice of ensuring that they clean corn at the booths to avoid congestion.
free market price indicative budget of crop gross margin taking care of input costs in relation to commercial prices and subsidy of beneficiaries of the government agricultural input support program. The main stakeholders in the market and the actors in the crop marketing chain under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture were the main stakeholders: the Zambia Grains Trade Association (GTAZ), the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) and the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), Indaba Institute for Agricultural Policy Research (IAPRI), Zambia Agriculture Commodity Exchange (ZAMACE) to name a few, but as key players, " added Mr. Simachela, adding that farmers would be paid within 14 days after delivering their maize. "Farmers will be paid on time, what I mean, is that they will be paid two weeks to from the moment they provided. So you can see that goodwill is there, "said Simachela.
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