NFRA in K130 billion deficit

National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) has said the K60 billion allocated in the proposed 2026/27 fiscal year to replenish the Strategic Grain Reserves (SGRs) is not enough, instead the agency requires an extra K130 billion to procure 170 000 metric tonnes (MT) this year. Speaking while appearing before the parliamentary Cluster Committee on Agriculture and Food Security and Natural Resources, Energy and Climate Change on Thursday, NFRA chief executive officer George Macheka said the K60 billion can only secure 54 000MT. He said while they have capacity to hold 340 000 MT of maize, studies show that for the country to be safe and food secure, the SGRs need to hold 217 000MT annually or at least 150 000MT.

“With that, we can feed one million people for four months. That assumes that there is an emergency, where we cannot access food anywhere else. From that figure, 95 000MT is the buffer, 8 000MT is set out for emergencies, 76 000 for safety nets while 38 000MT is for price stabilisation and commercial purposes.

“This year, we are projecting that we will release 183 000MT, but plan to replenish with 170 000MT which is still lower than the 217 000MT. The procurement plan looks at 165 000MT being maize, 2500MT being beans and 2500MT being rice. This would require us [to have] K194 billion,” said Macheka.

[paywall]

In an hour-long discussion monitored on Parliament’s Facebook page, he stressed the need to attach what NFRA is budgeting for and how much has been provided by government in the budget. Macheka said the right time to procure maize is immediately after people harvest as prices are fair, but hinted that funding delays make the agency to lose out as it ends up buying at a time when prices have gone up, essentially affecting quantities. Further, he said operations are also affected due to delays on other recurrent transactions (ORT) funding, for instance, the agency has not been funded for the past three months.

Said Macheka: “Last year as well, we had the same amount of K60 billion, but with the hunger, the government is expected to spend K188 billion, including for the Zambia maize. If we use the K1000 per kilogramme price, it means the amount is enough to give us just 54 000MT. “This figure will be against the set minimum of 150 000MT for the SGRs and the 170 000MT replenishment.

As a country we will be sitting on a time bomb, if the K60 billion is maintained. Should anything happen, the country will be up for trouble.” The committee’s co-chairperson Tiaone Hendry pledged support towards ensuring that the country is food secure. Weighingonthedevelopment, executive director of agriculture think-tank Mwapata Institute, William Chadza said the first and main challenge has been the timing of government maize purchases through the NFRA and Admarc.

Currently, traders and farmers are shunning selling maize to NFRA due to low prices at K840 per kg, and agriculture economist Sam Katengeza said while funding for NFRA is being discussed, there is need to engage farmers in earnest on prices. But while presenting the 2026/27 fiscal budget, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha said the K60 billion would ensure that the SGRs are replenished to their full capacity to achieve national food self-sufficiency.

[/paywall]