Maravi

Zambians should appreciate local products, says Nashiru

Zambians should appreciate local products, says Nashiru
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wednesday October 03, 2007 [04:00]

A VISITING Ghanaian farmers’ association leader has urged Zambians to have a sense of nationalism by buying local products instead of foreign ones. In an interview in Lusaka, Ghana Peasant Farmers Association (GPFA) president Muhammad Nashiru, who is touring African countries, said there was need for change of attitude among Africans to start appreciating local products, especially farm produce.

“I think there is need for us to start building a sense of nationalism. Why should we always be admiring goods from outside? We are shooting ourselves in the foot. If I come here and buy something from Europe, I am shooting myself in the foot because my money goes to help people in Europe,” Nashiru said. “There is need to change the attitude from the lowest man in society to the President himself.”

He said it was unfortunate that after farmers had struggled to produce their crops and taken it to the market they found foreign products, which customers preferred to theirs.
Nashiru complained that when he went to Magoye in Southern Province he found that the sole buyer, Parmalat, was determining the price for the milk.

“I think that is not fair,” he said. “Farmers should decide the price for their produce and not the buyer.”

He said in Ghana his association was demanding that government supports and protects local products.

“If that is done farmers are not lazy, some of them have been in the bush for 30 or 40 years while others spend all their lives producing food to feed people in the cities. So why can’t we sympathise with them and make policies that will improve their lives?” Nashiru asked. “It is very true that access to markets is a problem to the local produces in most African countries and one of the major reasons is that we still remain primary producers. We need to start value addition. Once that is done problems of marketing will be a thing of the past.”

He, however, said that could only happen when governments intervened.

“That way we will be able to compete but as it is now we can never compete with anybody because farmers lack even the know-how to go about the production of the crops and let alone to think about value addition,” Nashiru observed. “The problem is that a farmer is left alone to look for his own fertiliser, other inputs and even access to the local market becomes a problem.

Even when he takes his produces to the market he finds that market is flooded with European goods that are produced at a subsidised cost and people prefer European products.”

Labels: GHANA, LOCAL MARKETS, MUHAMMAD NASHIRU

posted by MrK @ 4:04 AM