Editorials

EDITORIAL: Locking out brokers from grain purchase welcome

The decision to impose quotas on the amount of maize that each small-holder farmer will be allowed to sell to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) this year is laudable and offers a first step in restoring order in the messy grain market.

The Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund (SFRTF) has capped purchases at 400 (90kg) bags for every registered maize grower, a break from the past when the quantity was unregulated. Imposing quotas on the supply volumes deals a direct blow to cartels that have over the years abused the grain purchase schemes for self-enrichment.

The vicious nature of these cartels was evident last year when thousands of farmers were left stranded with their produce even as the NCPB silos spilled with stocks shipped in from neighbouring countries by brokers and middlemen who were cashing in on the loophole.

This should not happen again from now on because it risks compromising the country’s food security since it demotivates farmers. No farmer would wish to invest in a non-rewarding enterprise in which cartels routinely make away with all the money earmarked for maize purchases.

It is more disheartening for them that the cartels act in cahoots with rogue State officers who have no qualms breaching public trust. Maize farmers, like any other business owners, expect returns from their investment.

The new maize purchase guidelines should therefore be implemented to ensure that only genuine farmers supply stocks to the National Strategic Food Reserve. Each farmer seeking to sell grains to the NCPB should also be vetted to weed out crooks who may resort to the old tricks of importing maize for sale to the government at the expense of deserving local producers.

Transparency will be key in winning the fight against the cartels in the grains market and managers of the SFRTF should consider publicly listing all beneficiaries of the State maize purchase scheme.

This will act as a deterrent to middlemen who have over the years ruined the lives of thousands of farmers by manipulating NCPB operations to enrich themselves.

It would also be advisable to shake-up some officials of the NCPB who may have been compromised by the cartels because old habits die hard and they may frustrate attempts to reform the grain purchase scheme. Any NCPB officials or private citizens found engaging in fraudulent activities should also be punished.