Basotho farmers from Mataoeng who are in block farming s have sought intervention from the Minister in the Prime Minister's office Mr. Limpho Tau, following an incident in which their maize was rejected by the District Disaster Management Authority, (DMA) during the second roll out of the local purchase.

This has been revealed by one of them Mr. Mokoto Khanyapa in an interview with the Agency, amid closure of registration for the third roll out, by asserting that it is unfortunate that they have paid for the services of government’s combined harvester which could not classify maize when harvesting, leading to the DMA rejecting their maize after finding various sizes in the bags when checking quality.

He stated that they have currently registered about nine hundred and twenty-one (921)bags of maize, and have signed a 2 year contract with owners of the fields which is coming to an end this farming season, noting the issue could stir up conflict of which field owners would accuse farmers of failing to keep their site of the agreement, should they fail to plough the fields in the coming season.

On the other hand, the District Disaster Manager Mr Lebohang Moletsane indicated that DMA is mandated with buying grains which are suitable for human consumption, so that at the end of the day the government is not being accused of distributing low quality food to the communities.