The Patriotic Front (PF) government has supplied underweight bags of basal fertilizer to farmers in Ndola’s Masaiti district.
The farmers who became suspicious of the weight of fertilizer decided to re-weigh the bags on a normal scale and the actual weight of the bags ranged between 41 and 46 kilogrammes.
The farmers complained that with the underweight bags of basal fertilizer they were likely to have poor yields next season which might reduce their household income.
Government has poorly managed this year’s maize marketing season that resulted in delayed payment for farmers that supplied maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA). In some cases, farmers have spending nights outside some designated banks where they were expected to receive money from while other farmers threatened to pull out their maize from FRA so they could sale to the private sector
Initially, government intended to force farmers open bank accounts with Finance Bank as a pre-condition to receive payment for their maize but after persistent protests the decision was reversed.
Despite the country recording bumper harvest in the previous farming season, for the first time in over twenty years, the country has experienced shortage of mealie meal especially on the Copperbelt province. The shortage resulted in increased price for the staple food and created anxiety in many households.