By 
Citizens First (CF) president, Harry Kalaba, has described as irresponsible and cruel the announcement by government that it will not buy any soya beans this year.
On Wednesday, FRA announced that it will be buying a 50kg bag of maize at K280 from K180 but said it will not buy soya beans because it has enough stock amounting to 100,000 metric tonnes from last year.
The agency also said it will buy only 500,000 tonnes for strategic reserves and currently has 248,770.35metric tonnes of Maize.
In reacting to the agency in a statement on Wednesday, Kalaba said the new price of a 50 kg bag of maize announced on Wednesday by the FRA will lead to further increases in the prices of mealie meal on the local market because of the absence of subsidies.
“The increase in the price of maize without a safety net will cause more suffering to citizens because the price of mealie meal will be out of the reach of an average family. Government is being irresponsible,” Kalaba said.
He noted that because of the chaos in the distribution of fertiliser in the last farming season, many farmers did not grow maize to avoid losing their crop but opted for soya beans, which the FRA used to buy at K650 last year while private buyers insisted on buying it at as low as K400.
“This is irresponsible and will bring misery among small-scale soya beans farmers who will be stuck with the commodity or be forced to sell it to the cruel private buyers at give-away prices,” Kalaba said.
He is worried that the continued mismanagement of the agriculture sector by the government was posing a threat to the country’s food security.
“For example, in Mumbwa very few farmers grew maize because of lack or late delivery of fertiliser. Majority of them grew soya beans. FRA has now left these poor farmers at the mercy of private buyers who are already offering K280 for a 50kg bag. It’s an insult for the private buyers to offer such a ridiculously low price,” Kalaba said.
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