FRA to operate 760 satellite depots during this marketing season

Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya

Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya says the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) will this marketing season operate 760 satellite depots across the country instead of the usual 1,223 deports.

Ms Siliya has told Parliament in a ministerial statement on marketing arrangements for the FRA for 2017 marketing season as well as the e-voucher nationwide rollout in 2017/2018 that the agency will buy 500,000 metric tonnes of maize for strategic reserves.

She says the reduction in the number of depots is in line with the policy pronouncement of limiting the strategic food reserve purchase to 500,000 metric tonnes.

Ms Siliya says the FRA will concentrate its operations in outlying areas where it has managed to purchase 60% of the crop in the past two seasons.

She says the concentration of the satellite depots will be in eastern, Luapula, Muchinga, northern, north western and western provinces where private sector participation is minimal due to limited accessibility.