IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL FARMING CAN MESS UP YOUR LIFE
By Mwaba Mutale
I started farming about 3 years ago.. fertiliser was around 300.. the price of a normal box of tomatoe was 70,80,100 and 140/150 in times of low supply. Forget those 250 because that price is a crisis price and comes once a year or not at all.. Right now 3 years later, fertilizers are 600 to 700 for fertilizers like compound WVC.. price of box of tomatoe, 40, 50, 80 or 100 if you lucky.. now tell me, bushe ninshi farmer eho basula olo eho batola? How do people survive high prices of farming inputs, chemicals increase over last 3 years is now at about 400% with 200% coming just in a single year of 2019, fuel in 2017 was 14.5 it’s now 17.8 Kwacha yet not a single farming produce has changed prices. You see the daily exodus of farmers its not that many have failed. They have held on far too long and now costs are unbearable..
Not just tomatoes.. price of chicken feed has doubled last three years yet the chicken prices have only moved 1 small tiny feet in front yet feed charcoal electricity and other inputs have doubled..
How are farmers surviving, especially small scale farmers who feed 80 of our daily foods like veggies and chicken and from whom you get your daily onion and tomatoes. Farming honestly for many is no longer profitable but has become an expensive hobby
Question is are my fellow farmers profitable? How are you surviving? How are you paying all the running costs, paying workers, buying electricity buying fuel and chemicals and fertilizers which have tripled yet inputs remain the same??
So this afternoon I ask my dear farmers, How are you really surviving???
