Government reiterates commitment to pay farmers for FRA maize deliveries

Agriculture Minister, Reuben Mtolo, claims the government has paid more than K6.1 billion to farmers who supplied maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) during the 2025 crop marketing season, which opened on June 30, 2025.

Mtolo told Parliament on Tuesday that the government had so far disbursed K4,882,358,574.64 directly to farmers countrywide and an additional K1,276,991,425.36 in auxiliary costs, bringing the total to K6,159,350,000.

In his ministerial statement, the Minister assured the House that arrangements were being made to settle the remaining balance and that payments would continue “until the last farmer was paid.”

“The crop marketing season commenced on June 30, 2025 and closed on October 31, 2025. The FRA was faced with an overwhelming response from our small-scale farmers,” he said.

He explained that FRA initially planned to purchase 543,000 metric tonnes of maize at a total cost of K3,692,400,000.

Mtolo said government had encouraged farmers to increase production, saying that with the bumper harvest and the need to ensure fair pricing, government allowed farmers to continue depositing maize with the FRA.

“The government decided to allow farmers to continue depositing their maize with FRA and by close of the marketing season, a total of 1,667,921.15 metric tonnes valued at K11,314,750,520 was supplied by a total of 846,655 farmers,” he said.

He noted that this represented a 307 percent increase above the planned target, with the additional maize costing K7,622,350,520.

Mtolo reiterated that government remained committed to paying the outstanding amounts owed to farmers across the country.

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