THIS week, I want to look at the maize marketing system from a different angle which is rarely focused on. Every year, the Government sets the floor price for the staple crop, maize, to guide the players in the market on the pricing mechanism. For instance this year, Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda announced the floor price for a 50 kilogramme bag (kg) of maize as K75 and, of course later on, President Edgar Lungu intervened and added another K10 per 50kg bag. The importance of Government involvement in the marketing system at this level cannot be debated because it finances the production of the bulk of the maize produced in the country. Through the Farmers Input Support Programme (FISP) to the small scale but viable farmers, the Government is a key player in the production of maize and other strategic crops like rice. It can, therefore, not be faulted for playing a critical role in the pricing mechanism for these crops but that is not the subject of this article! Today, we want to focus on the annual maize floor price. As already indicated, the Government initially set the floor price for maize this year at K75 per 50kg bag before the President intervened and added a K10 on each bag. Therefore, currently the floor price, which also happens to be the price at which the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) buys the crop from the farmers, is pegged at K85 per bag. As the name entails, generally, a floor price is the lowest price at which a commodity can be sold and the system is used by Governments world-over to prevent prices from being too low. Economists always insist that, to be effective and make economic sense, the floor price should always be above the equilibrium price. In short, the floor price system means that a particular product or service should not be sold below its floor price but can be sold at higher prices than the floor one. It has, however, regretfully been noted that over the years, the concept has been misused, especially by some players who are involved in the maize marketing system. The floor price has seemingly attained a different local meaning, as the highest price at which the maize can be sold by the farmers. This has been to the disadvantage of the farmers and tends to frustrate the very essence why the Government comes up with the floor price. In the end, the floor prices of maize have become the highest (ceiling), and not the lowest prices at which the crop has been bought, contrary to the Government intention, This year I have noted that Mpongwe Milling and the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) have come up with an initiative which will see farmers pocket K100 per bag, K15 over and above the K85 per 50kg bag of maize that was set by the Government. Notwithstanding the impact the move could have on the prices of the resultant mealie meal and other products, it is in the right direction in enforcing the floor price system. For the officials from Mpongwe Milling, which is also offering empty grain bags and transport, to agree to buy the crop at K100 per bag, they obviously know that they will still make profit even after acquiring the maize at that higher cost. Definitely, the move will help empower and motivate farmers to grow more maize in the coming season thereby guaranteeing the national food security. Mpongwe Milling’s move is a progressive one which will go a long way in helping to develop the agricultural sector and encouraging more potential farmers to grow the crop. Millers and other players in the sector should emulate Mpongwe Milling and negotiate different prices for the commodity, which of course should be higher than the floor price. On the other hand, associations and other interest groups within the agricultural sector should emulate ZNFU. The union has shown that it has the interest of the members at heart by negotiating for better prices of their commodity. It has been observed before that individually, the farmers especially the small-scale ones, cannot do much in terms of negotiating for higher prices of their crops, hence the need for the interest groups to play active roles in that. By providing leadership in the pricing of the maize, ZNFU has lived up to its position as a sector grouping whose main preoccupation is the interest of the members. On another day, we will look at the likely impact of the move by millers to acquire maize at higher prices. We will also look at the scam in which some millers have been supplying underweight mealie meal in the country. Comments: 0955 431442, 0977 246099, 0964 742506 or e-mail: jmuyanwa@gmail.com.