The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in Northern Province says the region has sufficient maize stock from last marketing season.

FRA Provincial Marketing Coordinator, Timothy Chanda says the province has over 16, 000 metric tons of white maize in its storage he adds  is enough for the region.

Mr. Chanda explains that the region is food secure going into the next crop marketing season as there are enough maize stock in its sheds based in Chilubi, Luwingu, Mbala and Mporokoso districts, respectively.

Briefing Kasama District Commissioner Annie Paul during her familiarisation tour of  the FRA depots, Mr Chanda  further projected a good harvest from the province this crop marketing season.

He said his office has since heightened the preparations for the 2024 crop marketing season.

And Kasama District Commissioner Annie Paul expressed happiness that the agency has started positioning itself for the coming crop marketing season.

Mrs Paul urged the FRA to prepare adequately for the marketing season stating that many players are coming to the region to buy maize as most parts of the country do not have the commodity because of the droughts which were experienced in other areas.

She further advised the Agency to put in place modalities that will attract farmers to sell their commodity to them.

Mrs Paul said the Agency should be aware of unscrupulous individuals who are ready to do all illegal things in order to disrupt the FRAs smooth buying of maize from the farmers.

She also assured farmers that government will this year pay them on time.