Farmers who sold their maize to the Food Reserve Agency this season are owed about K14.6 billion, and most of them should be paid in November. That was the message Situmbeko Musokotwane, the Finance Minister acting at Agriculture, gave the National Assembly in a ministerial statement on Tuesday 27 October, reported by Zambia Monitor on Tuesday and the Zambia Daily Mail on Wednesday. News Diggers carried the same figure under the headline "Govt owes maize farmers K14.6bn".
The numbers, as both outlets report them, are these. The FRA opened crop buying on 29 July with a target of 500,000 tonnes of maize and 1,000 tonnes of paddy rice. Farmers offered so much grain that the maize target was raised to 2.7 million tonnes, and the agency bought that amount from 1,850 buying depots at a cost of K18.738 billion. It also bought 1,304.41 tonnes of rice worth K9.7 million. Of the maize bill, K4.1 billion has been paid.
a sum of K4.1 billion has since been paid to farmers for maize already delivered to the agency
— Situmbeko Musokotwane, acting Minister of Agriculture, in a ministerial statement to Parliament on Tuesday 27 October, as reported by Zambia Monitor
The Treasury is to provide K14.7 billion through the 2026 supplementary budget to clear the arrears, and the ministry aims to make most of the payments by November. Musokotwane said the government remained committed to settling every outstanding payment as funds became available and thanked farmers for their patience. The Daily Mail's report gives the outstanding balance as K14.6 billion in one place and K14.7 billion in another; the K14.7 billion is the Treasury release, the K14.6 billion the debt it is meant to clear.
Where the maize goes
The statement also set out the size of the stockpile. Zambia produced an estimated 5.1 million tonnes of maize this year including seed maize, Zambia Monitor reports; with 1.42 million tonnes carried over, total stocks stood at 6.71 million tonnes against a national requirement of 4.2 million, leaving a marketable surplus of 2.5 million tonnes. The FRA's own stocks are expected to reach 4.1 million tonnes, the 1.42 million carried over plus this season's 2.7 million.
The agency has secured sales contracts for 1.7 million tonnes, 1.5 million of them for export and 212,000 for the domestic market, and the minister said export revenue would help sustain the strategic reserve and fund future purchases. He told the House that the reserve held enough maize to meet national needs until the next harvest, the Daily Mail reports, and that strengthening food security was a priority given the concern over El Niño.
The statement answers, in part, a question raised when the K19.9 billion supplementary budget was presented: how the Treasury would find the money for grain the FRA had not planned to buy. The answer given on Tuesday is that the money comes first and the export receipts follow. Whether the November payments arrive on the timetable the minister gave is the thing to watch.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “Govt admits owing Zambian farmers K14.6 billion” (27 Oct 2026); Zambia Daily Mail, “Maize money coming” (28 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “Govt owes maize farmers K14.6bn” (28 Oct 2026).