Agriculture: price stabilisation on the way
Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:47:42 +0000
The government is to establish a price stabilization fund to cushion farmers when global prices collapse.
This was announced by minster of agriculture Emmanuel Chenda in parliament following complaints that cotton farmers were in financial distress as the result of poor prices.
Mr Chenda admitted measures had been put in place to establish a fund to help cushion farmers in time of price challenges such as the one face by cotton farmers this year.
The minister could not say how soon the funds will be established but indicated that his ministry was determined to support local farmers against valgaries of incremental weather and poor prices.
Cotton farmers have been complaining about the low prices, saying despite having a lot of cotton harvested this farming season they were not willing to sell their harvest because of low prices offered.
The farmers were complaining about the high labour costs which they said would result in a huge loss if the cotton price was maintained at K1500 per kg.
Mr Chenda said there was need to promote and diversify in agriculture to benefit the local farmers.