Parley throws out agro motion
By Times Reporter
PARLIAMENT yesterday rejected a private member’s motion that sought to urge Government to remove alleged constraints in the agricultural marketing system by acclamation.
Those who opposed the motion moved by United Party for National Development Mapatizya Member of Parliament (MP) Ackson Sejani were more than those who supported it.
When presenting the motion, Mr Sejani said for as long as the marketing constraints in the agriculture sector were not addressed, poverty would continue to affect many citizens, particularly the rural communities.
Mr Sejani said the most affected were the rural communities whose families entirely depended on agriculture.
If the constraints in marketing were not addressed, he said, the rural communities would not be able to send their children to school and meeting their daily basic needs.
“There is no market for the farmers to sell their produce because the only market that they know is the Food Reserve Agency (FRA). The FRA in its current form is ill-equipped to handle the exercise of marketing. In many cases there are only six depots per district,” Mr Sejani said.
Seconding the motion, Lusaka Central MP Guy Scott (PF) said it was important that agriculture was run as a business.
Dr Scott said only then would the country continue attracting more citizens to the agriculture sector.
Summing up the debate, Minister of Agriculture and Co-operatives Peter Daka said the Government had put in place adequate measures to address the constraints in the agricultural marketing system.
He said while the Government was looking into the possibility of finding export markets, the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had secured a loan facility of K700 billion from a consortium of banks for crop purchases.
The Ministry of Finance and National Planning had also released K50 billion from the K100 billion budgeted for crop purchase for 2010.
Mr Daka said K100 billion could only purchase 40,000 tonnes of maize.
He said apart from the domestic market, the Government had sent word to International Trade Centre, World Food Programme, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Southern African Development Community regions with a view of finding markets for the maize.
He appealed to the private sector to follow up on initiatives that Government had initiated.
