Zambian President Mwanawasa said Friday that the government has sourced funds to enable the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to start the delayed agricultural marketing season of maize.

Mwanawasa said the FRA had until last week not started the marketing exercise due to inadequate funds.

He said in Ndola, northern Zambia that he has been in touch with commercial banks in the country which have released 40 billion kwacha (about 11.765 million U.S. dollars) demanded by the state-funded FRA.

Mwanawasa said he expected the agricultural marketing season to speed up by next week.

He said it is important for the FRA to buy the crop from farmers to motivate them.

Agricultural officials of the country have predicted that Zambia would this year record a 64.5 percent rise in maize output, which now stands at 1.424 million tons from 866,000 tons during the 2004-2005 farming season.

It is reported that some businessmen are pushing down maize prices in taking advantage of farmers' fear that they will can not sell their surplus maize.

Source: Xinhua