Access to food is paramount - Samasumo
Access to food is paramount - SamasumoBy Chibaula Silwamba
Wednesday October 17, 2007 [07:29]
ACCESS to food is paramount to people’s lives, Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) spokesperson Father Paul Samasumo has said. And a Kafue resident Misiwe Nkhazi urged the government to ensure that there is enough food in the reserves for local consumption before donating to other countries.
Commenting on the World Food Day that fell yesterday under the theme ‘The right to food’, Fr Samasumo said food security was very important and it was part of the Catholic Church’s duty to make everyone have something to eat.
“You can’t preach to hungry people. As ZEC, we have the CCJDP programme which looks at food security and in times of drought and food deficit we have lobbied for food relief,” Fr Samasumo said. “Access to food is paramount to people’s lives.”
He said Zambians had to work hard to ensure that there was food security in the country.
“And we must be grateful to God during the time when we have abundant harvest to ensure that the grain is well looked after,” he said.
Fr Samasumo urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to continue refining its policies on Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) and timely purchase of farm produce.
“Government should put in place policies that encourage not only commercial farmers but peasant farmers,” he advised. “Policies like Fertiliser Support Programme and cooperatives are good initiatives. We also appeal to the Minister of Agriculture to refine their system and deliver farming inputs early.”
Fr Samasumo said it was possible for Zambians to have abundant food and feed themselves.
“It’s possible to feed ourselves,” said Fr Samasumo.
And Nkhazi urged the government not to export or donate food to other countries while locals do not have enough food for consumption.
“We need to have enough food in the reserves for local consumption before we donate to other countries,” said Nkhazi.
And two Lusaka residents urged the government to encourage irrigation farming to ensure food security. Stephen Chewe said farming should not be seasonal and dependent on rainfall only.
“Government should improve the provision of farming inputs to peasant farmers. The government should introduce irrigation instead of depending on rainfall, which is unpredictable,” Chewe said.
“Agriculture extension officers should be sent to rural areas and educate farmers to have broad knowledge on how to produce food. That way we would have abundant food for local consumption and export.”
Another Lusaka resident, Kenneth Mwape urged the government to build dams that would be used for irrigation.
“We have a lot of water which we can use for irrigation. In other countries they rely on irrigation to produce food,” said Mwape.
posted by MrK @ 9:09 PM
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