By ALICE NACHILEMBE
Chingola District Commissioner Agnes Tonga has called on the farmers in the district to sell their maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
Briefing the media from her office, Ms Tonga said that government this year is not delaying in paying farmers which should be an encouragement to farmers to take maize to FRA unlike briefcase buyers.
She said for the farmers who are in the system, it will take three days to be paid their money while those not in the system will be paid after a week at K110 per bag.
“The district has six FRA deports where they can take their maize to. So far the district has bought 1866 bags of maize. The Farmer Support inputs has also arrived in the district ready to be distributed once farmers deposit the money. Government wants to see to it that farmers receive the necessities in time for the farming season.
“The last farming season yielded a bumper harvest which should also be the case for this year’s farming season. The 8400 x 50k kg bags of D compound and 4000 bags are in the shed and each farmer is receiving six bags of fertilizer plus a 10kg bad of maize seed,” she said.
And Chingola District Agricultural Coordinating Officer Philip Kalima said that the farmers should sell maize to FRA.
