Fourteen Food Reserve Agency depots in Chipata closed for failing to buy enough maize.

Fourteen satellite depots in Chipata have been closed for not purchasing enough maize since maize marketing opened in June this year.
District Agriculture Co-ordinator, Michael Ngulube confirmed this to Breeze News.
Mr. Ngulube says that only 11 out of 25 depots in the district are being used by FRA, the Food Reserve Agency to purchase maize at the moment.
And Mr. Ngulube says that Chipata district has purchased about 172, 000 by 50 kilogram bags of maize valued at about 11.2 million Kwacha.
This is out of the expected 365,740 by 50 kilogram bags of maize to be purchased this year.
Mr. Ngulube reiterated that the district will not reach the target because a lot of farmers sold their maize to briefcase buyers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ngulube says that the district has received all the basal dressing fertilizer from NCZ, the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia and is still waiting for Urea, which the government has procured from Saudi-Arabia.
The DACO added that a total of fifteen million kilograms of tobacco valued at 207 million Kwacha was bought during the 2012/2013 farming season in Chipata.