Irate unpaid farmers storm ZANACO in Itezhi Tezhi as Maize go to waste

Scores of irate Small scale farmers in Itezhi Tezhi District in Southern Province yesterday stormed ZANACO branch in the district to demand for delayed payment for maize they supplied to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

The emotional and visibly annoyed farmers from the outskirts of the district who have been camping in the township for over two weeks besieged the bank.

ZANIS reports that the Bank and the District Commissioner’s office had to call for police reinforcement from the ItezhiTezhi police station to disperse the angry farmers who bitterly complained of delayed payment of their money by FRA to pay despite sold their maize early.

“We have been camping in guest houses and open spaces while waiting for the money. The rains have already started and we have not yet bought fertilizer. Why is FRA releasing money all the money and clear us?
The farmers said it was unfair for the bank to tell them that it had no money because Government last week promised to pay them by this week.

“It is not fair for the bank to tell us there is no money after having travelled from far places. We are appealing to Government through the DC to quickly address our plight because some of us are spending nights in the cold as we do not have relatives in town”. One of the farmers shouted.

They also accused FRA officials of not following the first come first serve rule when paying money to farmers and allegedly charged that only those corrupting officials were being paid first.

ItezhiTezhi District Commissioner Charles Hampende who had a tough time to calm the unruly crowd called on farmers to not despair because Government had assured to liquidate the K9 billion balance by this week.

He said that only K 300 million was released last week and that it was only enough to pay seven farmers and had been exhausted already.

He said that so far, K11billion had been paid to farmers in the entire district while the balance of K9 billion would be paid by this week to those who have not yet received their dues.

Last week, Scores of Small scale farmers in ItezhiTezhi District stormed the District Commissioner’s (DCs) office to press Government to pay them their money for the maize they supplied to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA)

Meanwhile, Undisclosed substantial tonnes of maize bought by Government through Food Reserve Agency (FRA) were soaked by rains and have gone to waste in three quarters of the depots in Itezhi Tezhi district in Southern Province.

FRA has so far bought maize worth more than K 11 billion from farmers in the district since the maize buying exercise started in mid July this year.

ZANIS reports that the development was revealed during an inspection tour of various depots in ItezhiTezhi by the District Maize Marketing Committee headed by newly appointed District Commissioner Charles Hampende.

In Basanga area in Chief Musungwa’s chiefdom, the Committee found that FRA bought 7,000 bags of maize last year and three quarters of the produce was soaked and rotten while the exact figure of ruined maize was not yet computed despite the lapse of time.

At Namalindi depot, about three thousand (3,000) bags of maize were soaked and rotten while at Yomena depot almost the entire stacks of 25,000 bags of white maize for last year’s is rotten.

FRA has this year bought 30,000 bags at the same depot.

In Mbila area in chief Shezongo’s chiefdom, it was discovered that this year’s huge stacks of 47,000 bags of white maize were still unsecured as they remained in the open.
The Maize Marketing Committee also discovered that undisclosed but substantial number of bags were soaked and rotten last year while much of the maize was being wasted due to poor quality maize bags that were bursting.

At Itumbi palace in Chief Kaingu’s chiefdom, a similar situation had occurred with three quarters of the maize had gone bad while in Lubanda, chief Shimbizhi’s chiefdom at Ikombwe more than 1000 bags of maize representing three quarters were equally rotten and have been abandoned.

ItezhiTezhi District Cooperative Union (DCU) Officer Oliver Stengu told the Maize Marketing Committee that that some of the maize was just discoloured and would be useful for stock feeds.

Mr. Stengu said he had issued directives to his Cooperative Society Officers to compile the quantity of maize which was soaked by the rains last year and this year.
He said that FRA had been recovering money from the societies whose maize was soaked and rotten.

He also said that there was a critical shortage of empty maize bags for the district.

“We need about 1,000 empty maize bags to re-bag the maize that is spilling from the bursting FRA bags.”

Mr.Stengu added that his office was making efforts to ask FRA to procure more tarpaulin tents to cover the maize because the initial tents the district received had run out due to the huge amount of maize which was bought from the farmers.

“We have a shortage of five tents in the district . The tents we were given were not enough, we communicated to FRA and they are looking into that issue”
He said some maize was marooned in some areas because transporters were failing to collect it due to dilapidated roads.

“But we have engaged local transporters for them to go to all depots so that the maize can be brought from the holding depots,” he said. And the Depot Clerk Nella Kasamu at Basanga said that some maize at the bottom of stacks were soaked by last week’s rains and maize had even germinated.

He attributed soaked maize to delay in transporting the produce to safer storage facilities. In a related development, ItezhiTezhi District Commissioner directed the DCU to immediately devise measures aimed at ensuring the harvested maize was secured.

Mr. Hampende said FRA had paid out about K11 billion cash to farmers in the district and would soon release money to liquidate the balance of K9 billion by next week. He said that Government had spent colossal sums of money to procure maize and warned that it would not tolerate maize due to carelessness.

Mr. Hampende said it would be unfortunate to allow the bumper harvest which had been recorded in the country to go to waste because of negligence at storage facilities. He said the maize should not be allowed to go to waste because it was the same crop which the Disaster Management Unit used for relief.

ZANIS