June 4, 2012

Zambia's corn price setting policy affects World Bank

The World Bank, saying this is affecting the sustainable development of the agriculture sector, has expressed concern at the Zambian government's decision to continue setting the corn floor price, the Post of Zambia reported on Friday (June 1).

On Wednesday (May 30), Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Emmanuel Chenda announced the corn price of corn for the 2012-13 marketing season, a policy that has been going in since the liberalisation of the agriculture sector in the 1990s.

But World Bank Country Manager for Zambia Kundhavi Kadiresan said it was unfortunate that the new government had continued with the policy of setting the corn floor price, which she said had failed to significantly reduce rural poverty.

She said the delay to change the policy on corn growing and marketing was hurting the farmers, particularly the poor farmers as some traders were buying from small farmers in anticipation of re-selling at a higher price to the country's Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

"We are deeply concerned that this policy direction does not ensure the long term and sustainable growth of the agriculture sector. Current corn prices encourage mono cropping at the expense of crop diversification," the World Bank official was quoted as saying by the paper.

According to the World Bank official, job creation through economic diversification was unlikely to be achieved if government continued pursuing the same policy in the agriculture sector such as setting the floor price of corn.

Zambia has produced 2,852,687 tonnes of corn, its staple crop, during the 2011-12 farming season, a slight drop from the last season when the country produced over three million tonnes of the staple crop.