By MUNAMBEZA MUWANEI and SARAH MWANZA –
SOME small-scale farmers have started selling the maize to private buyers at K65 for a 50 kilogramme bag, K20 less than the country’s floor price for last year.

. Lubinda

But Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Given Lubinda said farmers were at liberty to continue selling their maize to private buyers at their own negotiable prices.
Mr Lubinda said according to a survey he undertook, some private buyers were offering reasonable prices to the farmers.
The minister said selling maize to private buyers gave the famers an advantage as they decided the price at which to sell their merchandise and got cash in time unlike waiting for months from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
“FRA is the worst buyer because they impose the price on the farmers and delay to process of payments, but with private buyers it is the opposite,” he said.
Mr Lubinda, however, said the Government would only announce the price at which FRA would start buying maize when the moisture content is at 12.5.
“If we buy maize with high moisture content it will go to waste and that is wasting taxpayers’ money. But as soon as the moisture content  is below 12.5 we will start buying, especially from far-flung areas where private buyers do not reach,” she said.
Mr Daniel Mudenda, a farmer from Munkulungwe area in Ndola, said he had already sold the maize to private millers at K65.
Mr Mudenda said he normally sold the commodity to the FRA, but following the delay to announce the price, he decided to sell the produce.
“I have already sold my maize and received the money within two days,” he said.
Another farmer, who declined to be named, said he was not in a hurry but would wait until the price of the commodity was announced.
He said if he sold to the private buyers, he would be making a loss after having spent a lot of money on the cultivation of the crop.
Yet another farmer, Dorothy Mwenya said a number of farmers were still harvesting and would soon start selling the commodity.
Ms Mwenya, who has been farming for the past 10 years, was hopeful that the Government would immediately announce the floor price.
However, some private buyers are said to have started exporting the commodity to neighbouring countries.
But the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) says it is good for private buyers to be recognised as an alternative market for maize farmers.
ZNFU has, however, said that the Government’s delay to announce this year’s maize floor price has worried farmers.
ZNFU public relations officer Kingsley Kaswende said farmers were not supposed to be dependent on one market opportunity for their crops.
Mr Kaswende said as much as ZNFU welcomed private buyers to emulate the Government through the FRA to buy crops from farmers, private buyers only bought maize in areas with economic sense to them.
“It is good that private buyers have to be recognised as an alternative market of maize. Farmers need a diversity of market opportunities for their crops. However, it should also be recognised that private buyers do not reach all areas in the country.
“They (private buyers) usually buy maize from areas where it makes economic sense for them, mainly along the line of rail and not far from urban areas,” he said.
Mr Kaswende said it was in view of the aforesaid that farmers in far-flung areas were left with challenges of how to sell their crop.
He said that FRA came in handy for such farmers as the Agency bought even in remote areas.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock traditionally announces the FRA purchase price of maize soon after the Crop Forecast Survey Results (CFSR) in May/June.
ZNFU was sensitising farmers through various methods on the prevailing prices of maize and farmers were being discouraged from selling their commodity at exploitative prices.