Africa-Press – Zambia. The National Union of small-scale farmers in Zambia (NUSFAZ) says that the fuel pump price increments have negatively affected the cost of doing business for farmers across the country.
NUSFAZ Executive Director Ebony Lolozhi reasons that at the time small scale farmers were transporting their inputs to their farms the price of fuel was not as high as it is now.
ZANIS reports that Mr Lolozhi in an interview lamented that now that fuel has been adjusted upwards, the farmers will incur more costs to transport the harvested produce to the market.
“The same goes for farmers involved in irrigation. those that are using petrol or diesel pumps, they have definitely been affected in that the cost of pumping water has now been increased and even have to suffer reduced income,” he said.
He added that the normal trend in Zambia is that the rate at which the cost of production rises and the rate at which the output prices rise is not the same.
The Executive Director said that production costs rise faster compared to output prices adding that if the best was to come out of the agriculture sector the government has to get involved.
Mr Lolozhi said the government can play its part by ensuring that it regulates and deals with issues of subsidies efficiently by protecting the small scale farmers. He said if the small scale farmers are protected they will not fall out of production as the cost of doing business will be favourable for them.
For More News And Analysis About Zambia Follow Africa-Press
