{"id":7330,"date":"2026-08-21T22:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=7330"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:33:16","slug":"fra-buys-over-680000-tonnes-of-maize-as-zambias-national-stock-surpasses-two-million-tonnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=7330","title":{"rendered":"FRA buys over 680,000 tonnes of maize as Zambia\u2019s national stock surpasses two million tonnes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">By Julius M. Phiri<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Zambia has accumulated more than two million metric tonnes of maize following the Food Reserve Agency\u2019s (FRA) purchase of 680,914 metric tonnes of Grade A white maize from farmers since the opening of satellite depots on July 29, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">FRA Board Chairperson Suresh Desai said the Agency had so far paid farmers K3.4 billion for the maize supplied, with payments continuing. Mr Desai said the Agency had also purchased 11.56 metric tonnes of paddy rice during the 2026 crop marketing season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">He said the maize carry-over stock from the 2024\/2025 marketing season stood at 1.455 million metric tonnes, bringing Zambia\u2019s total maize stock position to more than two million metric tonnes after taking into account the newly purchased crop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\u201cGiven the gazetted crop marketing period which runs from 1st May to 31st October, the Agency will remain on the market to provide market access to farmers,\u201d Mr Desai said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">He said FRA had introduced digital payments through mobile money and bank accounts during the 2026 crop marketing season, a system he said had significantly improved the speed and efficiency of payments to farmers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\u201cThis payment system has worked extremely well and has enabled the Agency to make prompt payments to farmers. As a result, farmers are happy with the way the system is working,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Mr Desai said the Agency had also established Satellite Depot Committees to manage and coordinate activities at individual depots as part of measures to enhance service delivery. He said the interventions had contributed to improved service delivery and timely payments to farmers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Mr Desai assured farmers that FRA remained on the market to purchase designated crops during the gazetted marketing period.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\u201cThe Agency is still on the market purchasing designated crops, digital farmer payments are being enhanced and the nation is food secure considering the current stock position,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">The FRA Board Chairperson said the Agency would continue strengthening measures aimed at improving farmer access to markets and ensuring food security in Zambia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--\/data\/user\/0\/com.samsung.android.app.notes\/files\/clipdata\/clipdata_bodytext_260821_121932_888.sdocx--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Julius M. Phiri Zambia has accumulated more than two million metric tonnes of maize following the Food Reserve Agency\u2019s (FRA) purchase of 680,914 metric tonnes of Grade A white maize from farmers since the opening of satellite depots on July 29, 2026. FRA Board Chairperson Suresh Desai said the Agency had so far paid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newspaper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FRA buys over 680,000 tonnes of maize as Zambia\u2019s national stock surpasses two million tonnes - Times Asian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=7330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FRA buys over 680,000 tonnes of maize as Zambia\u2019s national stock surpasses two million tonnes - Times Asian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Julius M. Phiri Zambia has accumulated more than two million metric tonnes of maize following the Food Reserve Agency\u2019s (FRA) purchase of 680,914 metric tonnes of Grade A white maize from farmers since the opening of satellite depots on July 29, 2026. FRA Board Chairperson Suresh Desai said the Agency had so far paid [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=7330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Times Asian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-21T16:22:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-25T11:33:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Messenger_creation_658D3BD1-3E3A-4A33-A122-184A727C3E64.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Times Asian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Times Asian\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Times Asian\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be0bfd16d0a661d87d306a8f434642d5\"},\"headline\":\"FRA buys over 680,000 tonnes of maize as Zambia\u2019s national stock surpasses two million tonnes\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-21T16:22:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-25T11:33:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330\"},\"wordCount\":343,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Messenger_creation_658D3BD1-3E3A-4A33-A122-184A727C3E64.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Newspaper\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesasian.com\\\/?p=7330\",\"name\":\"FRA buys over 680,000 tonnes of maize as Zambia\u2019s national stock surpasses two million tonnes - 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