Group laments activities of ‘briefcase buyers’ of maize, seeks protection of smallholder farmers

CARITAS Zambia says as the harvesting period for the maize crop of the 2022/ 2023 farming season gets underway, government must ensure that the interests of smallholder farmers are protected from briefcase buyers.

Programme Officer for Livelihoods and Climate Change Programme, Eugene Ng’andu, said government should consider revising upwards the maize floor price for the year 2023 to at least K250 per 50kilogramme bag.

Ng’andu said government working through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) should ensure that it purchases and store sufficient quantities of stock in order to replenish the country’s Strategic Grain Reserve.

He noted that with increasing climate variability, this will assure food security in times of food stress as well as other sorts of calamities that create volatility in prices and availability.

“According to the 2022 Crop Forecast Survey, smallholder farmers accounted for 96% of the total maize production for the 2021/2022 season while the commercial farmers accounted for only four percent,” Ng’andu said.

He said despite this, smallholder farmers are the ones that are most likely to be negatively affected and vulnerable to impacts of climate change.

Ng’andu has reiterated CARITAS Zambia’s demand that the government immediately puts into place mechanisms and strategies that will quickly assist smallholder farmers in adapting to the impacts of climate change.

“This should also aim at strengthening climate-resilient agricultural practices in time for the 2023/2024 farming season,” he said.

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