Govt releases K400m to settle farmers

Dora Siliya – Agriculture Minister (Picture by Albert Mpezeni)

Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya says the ministry of finance has today released K400 million towards the payment of farmers who supplied maize to the Food Reserve Agency during the 2017 marketing season.

Ms Siliya has told Parliament that this is in addition to the K103,241,130 initially paid out to 14,580 farmers.

She says the agency purchased 516,863 metric tons of maize valued at K620,235,720 from 60,355 farmers.

She says the latest disbursement of funds by the ministry of finance leaves a balance of K117 million which is expected to be paid to farmers in the next few days.

Ms Siliya says the ministry of agriculture has since begun moving the money to the Food Reserve Agency for onwards disbursement to the farmers.