The maize price crisis is not resolved yet, and this is so important that it already took a lot of my advertorial space and will probably take up a lot more in editions to come. “Maize is a poor mans’ crop.”

I love this quote from the Green Party’s President, Peter Sinkamba, which he repeated recently. He is 100% correct, because there is absolutely no way that a farmer can make a living with K65 for a 50 kg bag of maize. This is surely a recipe for poverty. The increase  of K5 per bag from last year will not improve the situation at all.

ZNFU is constantly offering reasonable alternatives, but negotiations between the three stakeholders, ZNFU, the Food Reserve Agency and government, are going in circles.
However, poverty is not the only concern. Famine might also be on the cards if farmers refuse to plant enough maize due to the low price… Maize production dropped 33,6% between the 2017 and 2018 season. During the 2017 season, maize farmers produced an impressive 3,6 million tonnes, but the expected tonnage for 2018 might be as low as 2,3 million.

Luckily for the maize consumer, there is enough carry-over stock, but we shall definitely not be this lucky after this season. The solution is simple. Do not cage farmers in like in totalitarian countries.
If government opens the borders for exports, everything will get back to normal. The willing buyer, willing seller principle will stabilise the industry.

This month we look at the recent NAMPO-show in South Africa, which is growing bigger every year. KSB pumps opened a branch in Lusaka and besides our regular series, we started a new one on aquaponics.

Farm smartly!
Du Preez de Villiers – dupreez@proagri.co.za

Get ProAgri Zambia 31 here: ProAgri_Zambia_031