Govt urged to enact agric market guidelines

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 09:47:33 +0000

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

GOVERNMENT needs to enact the Agricultural Marketing Act to guide all private and public agricultural marketing activities in Zambia, Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) has suggested.

The IAPRI, in its recent report, said the Act would provide guidance on the involvement of Government in the maize, fertiliser, seed, crops, fish and livestock markets.

The institution believed this would bring the most needed policy transparency and predictability that would enhance the development of sustainable market for smallholder farmers.

“The country needs to enact the Agricultural Marketing Act to guide all private and public agricultural marketing activities in Zambia.

“In the mixed policy environment, the Government co-exists with the private sector as an unfairly large competitor, and this hinders the development of the agricultural sector,” reads the report.

IAPRI urged Government to avoid policies that crowded out private sector participation, and should instead seek to facilitate market growth, as well as make every effort to leverage private sector investments.

It further said complete Government withdrawal from the market was neither realistic nor desirable.

The institution recommended cost effective alternatives that would not burden the Treasury, but still help achieve sustainable agricultural growth and poverty reduction.

IAPRI also suggested that Government should offer the import parity price for maize like the private sector and fulfil its requirements of 500,000 metric tonnes for the grain reserve. “The Government should also ensure that funds are available for immediate payment once farmers deliver their grain. In this way, the Government would be fulfilling its requirement for food security but at the same time save the scanty resources.

“Since the floor price is very high as compared to the import parity price, the Government should review the agriculture model so that it comes up with a realistic model if it still requires continuing with setting the producer price,” reads the report.