PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has advised farmers not to sell their produce to briefcase buyers who move around offering unfair prices. On the face of it, that warning is correct. Any serious government should be concerned when opportunistic traders descend on rural areas to exploit vulnerable farmers, buy cheaply, hoard produce and later make huge profits at the expense of the people who did the hard work. There is nothing wrong with a President cautioning farmers to be careful. But that advice, standing on its own, is not enough. In fact, it risks sounding hollow if government itself has not created conditions that make it sensible for farmers to avoid those buyers in the first place. No farmer willingly sells to...