CSPR Pushes for Major Overhaul of Food Reserve Agency

Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) is advocating for significant reforms to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to improve Zambia’s maize marketing system for better support to smallholder farmers, who are crucial to the country’s food security and agricultural sector.

The push for reforms follows persistent inefficiencies within the Agency’s maize marketing operations, such as payment challenges and other bottlenecks, which continue to disadvantage small-scale farmers.

Recently, President Hakainde Hichilema directed FRA to urgently resolve maize purchase bottlenecks from small scale farmers with regards availability of packing sacks, some payment challenges, limited buying depots.

CSPR Executive Director, Isabel Mukelabai charged that instead of functioning as a catalyst for productivity and rural income growth, the FRA’s approach has often perpetuated systemic bottlenecks, such as delayed purchases, lack of grain bags, inconsistent payment timelines, and susceptibility to political interference.

Ms. Mukelabai said these challenges erode the economic benefits that the Agency is meant to deliver to smallholder farmers, who constitute the backbone of Zambia’s food system.

She highlighted that the Agency has a mandate to ensure national food security and provide a structured market for staple crops, as stipulated in the FRA Act, but that its current operational model falls short of supporting inclusive growth in maize production.

“Even though some corrective measures might have been effected, they must be accompanied by comprehensive institutional reforms if the FRA is to deliver on its intended mandate and meaningfully support Zambia’s agricultural transformation agenda.”

“CSPR acknowledges the President’s recent pronouncement and directives, which were made on August 23, 2025, when the President met with traditional leaders under the Lamba Lima Royal Establishment and leaders of the Baptist Union of Zambia during the ongoing celebrations of the Baptist Union’s 120th anniversary. These pronouncements and directives were a testament to the existing challenges that the current maize marketing season faced,” Ms. Mukelabai said.

Ms. Mukelabai commended President Hichilema’s call for immediate intervention, especially on issues such as the shortage of grain bags and maize procurement delays.

“However, CSPR cautions that unless the FRA’s deeper structural and operational inefficiencies are addressed, such challenges will persist season after season, rendering these short-term corrective interventions insufficient and unsustainable,” she emphasized.

She implored FRA to urgently and transparently implement work on its internal system to guarantee that institutional system changes will ensure the immediate provision of empty grain bags across all depots, fast-tracking payment disbursements to farmers upon delivery of maize, as well as establishing clear, timely, and reliable communication channels with farmers to avoid exploitation by middlemen.

“CSPR holds the view that achieving food security and economic development in Zambia will depend largely on the ability to build an efficient, inclusive, competitive, and transparent maize marketing system. Small-scale farmers must no longer be treated as passive recipients in this value chain but as key economic actors whose contributions should be rewarded fairly and consistently,” Ms. Mukelabai added.

Ms. Mukelabai emphasized the need for Ministry of Agriculture, FRA, and other relevant government stakeholders to collaborate with non-state actors to address the challenges hindering the agricultural sector.

“We further call for the initiation of a policy dialogue on restructuring the FRA to reflect its traditional statutory institutional obligations as a strategic food reserve agency and not one that appears to distort the maize and mealie meal markets. This will align with the current demands of Zambia’s agriculture policy framework.