Farmers in Chimwala area in Mwase Chiefdom in Lundazi District have threatened to sell all their maize crop to the neighbouring Malawi if the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) does not buy their produce in time.
Chimwala Block Extension Officer, Bibian Ziba told ZANIS that 100 percent of maize from the area had been going to Malawi every crop marketing season due to lack of FRA presence in the district.
Ms Ziba disclosed that farmers had found it cost effective and convenient to sell their maize crop to Malawi-based briefcase traders because they bought maize from farmers door steps, a move farmers had appreciated as it cut on transport costs.
The field officer further observed that proximity to Malawi and need to have money in their pockets was a force behind farmers selling maize to Malawian traders who were already in the chiefdom and providing a ready market for the staple crop.
She has appealed to the FRA to consider putting up depots in border areas to curb maize smuggling and to deter farmers from selling their crop to Malawi traders if household as well as national food security were to be attained in the face of general national crop failure.
And the office of the Lundazi District Commissioner is working with security wings to see how best the maize crop in the district could be protected from vendors to allow for FRA to move in and buy all the crop from Lundazi farmers.
Lundazi District Commissioner, Marjory Banda is concerned at the rate undried maize was leaving the country following the invasion of briefcase traders, mainly from the neighbouring country, Malawi.
Ms Banda told ZANIS that her office has engaged FRA to ensure that buying points were strategically placed in areas that were far from the current FRA depots to encourage farmers to sell their maize to FRA.
The district administrator has since directed the Zambia National Service (ZNS) and the police to move in and ensure that no maize grain left the country illegally.
And Chief Mwase has warned his subjects against selling every maize grain to vendors.
The chief who was represented by his Induna at Chimwala agricultural block field day said it would be embarrassing for his chiefdom to line up for relief maize after having received relatively good rains which translated into a fairly good harvest.
