By Joel Phiri

Mzimba, January 12, Mana: Some farmers based in Mzimba have cried foul at the lack of readily available markets for their produce and lack of access to loans.

Speaking on Thursday in Mzimba during an agribusiness forum organised by the Mzimba district agriculture office for farmers, agro-dealers and loan providers, Thokozile Jere, of Chitafika Cooperative from Champhira Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mzikubola, said they produce a lot of sunflower, soya, maize and beans but they end up selling to vendors who offer low prices.

‘‘As a cooperative, our major challenge lies in finding readily available markets where we can sell our produce at better prices. And due to the lack of markets we end up being milked off by vendors who buy our produce at lower prices,’’ she said.

Jere said some unscrupulous vendors go into the village and buy their maize produce at K5,000 per pail of 20 litres which they in turn sell at over K12,000.

Another farmer, Luka Kaweche Manda of Sekelerani Cooperative from Unyolo Section in Khosolo EPA in T/A Khosolo, lamented lack of capital for growth of their cooperative.

‘‘We produce a lot of Irish potatoes but we don’t make a lot of profits because we don’t have markets so we just sell at local markets in the village, and in the end incurring hefty losses.

“The sad part of it all is that we incur a lot in buying farm inputs, such as fertilizer and chemicals yet we can’t make any gains from it. We appeal to government to help us on how we can gain access to loans and also help identify markets for our produce,’’ said Manda.

Speaking during the forum, FDH Bank’s Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise (Farmse) Project officer Eloshadieh Fologonya appealed to the farmers to apply for loans under Farmse programme.

‘‘Under Farmse we provide loans to associations, cooperatives and clubs at no loan interests at all. So those of you farmers grappling with lack of finances to grow your various businesses, apply for these loans and you will be given,’’ said Fologonya who also works as Direct Sales Agent for FDH Bank.

In his remarks, acting Chief Agriculture Officer for Mzimba, Raphael Msyali, said his office organised the meeting so that farmers’ concerns about access to loans, markets and other things could be dealt with by stakeholders in agribusiness.