Dear Editor,
THE farmers are in windfall. This follows the Food Reserve Agency’s announcement of the price of maize and other crops for the 2020/2021 farming season. The announcement was made on Monday May 31, 2021.
FRA announced that it will buy maize at K150 per 50kg bag, soya beans at K500 per 50kg bag and paddy rice at K200 per 40kg bag. The increase in the price of these crops will translate into more money in pockets of farmers.
However, farming is business and as such, the reasonable price of the crops during this year’s marketing season will motivate the farmers to grow more crops in this year’s farming season.
If this is not good enough, the increased price of the crops announced by the FRA will ultimately benefit the farmers who obtained the agricultural inputs from the Farming Input Support Programme (FISP).
The farmers have in the recent past bemoaned high cost of fertiliser and seeds. The high price of crops announced by the FRA has come at the right time.
It is true to mention here that some people will insinuate that the lucrative price of the crops set by the FRA is a campaign ploy by the Patriotic Front to lure the voters to vote for the ruling party.
One thing for a fact is that people are entitled to their own opinion on the current crop marketing season.
Zambia is a free market economy. This implies that the price of goods and services is determined by the forces of demand and supply. Given this scenario, the farmers have the choice to sell their crops at a higher price than the one set by the FRA to the private buyers and make more profit.
All said and done, the government through the FRA should be commended for putting more money in the farmers’ pockets through the lucrative price of crops in this year’s crop marketing season.
ELEMIYA PHIRI,
Lusaka.
