Zambia is heading for a maize bumper harvest due to good rains experienced in this agriculture season and its total maize output is expected to rebound to 1.2 million tons, local media in Lusaka reported on Sunday.

Chairman of the Food Reserves Agency (FRA) Costain Chilala was quoted as saying that the bumper harvest is imminent as opposed to the 108,000 tons maize deficit experienced during the 2004-2005 agricultural season.

But for the Zambian farmers especially the small-medium ones, bumper harvest is both a joy and worry. They are anticipating a good harvest and looking forward to a good income as a result. They are also worried about no ready markets for their maize at a profitable price.

The farmers and their union are urging the government to take measures to protect them from the exploitation of "unscrupulous maize buyers".

On the other hand the farmers are urged not to rush into selling their maize at the peanut price for fear of losing their grain because of the delay by the state-funded FRA, which is responsible for purchasing the maize. The farmers waste no time to sell their maize also for immediate money.

The FRA will start the crop marketing season late next month when the maize would has sufficiently dried up. But even then it can only buy a little.

The FRA currently has only 70 billion kwacha (21.875 million dollars) to buy 80,000 tons of maize and an additional 70 billion kwacha is required for it to buy 70,000 tons of maize during the buying exercise this year.

In view of the fact that it has no enough fund to buy all the surplus maize the FRA has urged millers and the private sector to come on board and buy this year's crop.

The peasant farmers and their local leaders including chiefs are urging the FRA to speed up the buying process so that they are not compelled to sell their products to the middle traders.

Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture Sam Mundia said that "as a ministry we have advised farmers to have extra storage bins so that they can store as much maize as possible."

Source: Xinhua