Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa directed Saturday the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to double their efforts and purchase all the surplus maize from farmers countrywide before the onset of the rainy season.

The president also mandated the agency to export about 100,000 tons of maize in order to raise money to offset the debt owed to commercial banks for purchasing the maize.

Speaking at a rally of his ruling party in Kitwe he said he was not pleased that the FRA had not managed to buy most of the maize from small-scale farmers countrywide.

Mwanawasa said the state-funded FRA had been given 20 billion kwacha (5.71 million US dollars) for maize purchase, and had borrowed another 20 billion kwacha from commercial banks.

He said the government would give the FRA an additional 30 billion kwacha (8.571 million dollars) to purchase all the surplus maize from the farmers.

Mwanawasa said though he had allowed FRA to export maize, the agency should ensure that they stock up enough maize in strategic reserves for national consumption.

Zambia has a maize surplus of 160,000 tons in this agricultural marketing season and it is estimated that in 2006/2007 farming season a total of about 1.445 million tons of maize will be reaped and the total national requirement in the agricultural year will be about 1.285 million tons.

Source: Xinhua