Maravi

HH accuses govt of planning artificial maize shortage

HH accuses govt of planning artificial maize shortage
Written by George Zulu in Sinazongwe and Christopher Miti in Chipata
Monday, August 03, 2009 12:30:23 AM

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has said President Rupiah Banda’s administration is incapable of addressing problems small-scale farmers are facing in the provision of inputs and marketing of the produce throughout the country. And Chipata District Farmers Association (CDFA) coordinator Virgil Malambo has said there is need to appreciate what farmers are doing in the development of the country.

In an interview in Sinazongwe on Saturday where he had gone to attend the Lwiindi Maliko traditional ceremony which was cancelled due to the death of chief Sinazongwe’s elder brother, Hichilema said the MMD government had failed to provide markets for agricultural produce.

Hichilema said not long ago, Zambia was importing the staple food from Zimbabwe, adding that it would be foolish not to provide sustainable food security measures through buying all the produce from small-scale farmers who had harvested.

“Not long ago, we were buying imported maize from Zimbabwe and that is two months ago and genetically modified maize which was bought by family members of President Banda. This government is not buying maize, the 4,000 bags they are boasting of buying per depot in numerical terms it is only from three to four small scale farmers but what about the rest of the farmers who depend on government to provide for marketing of the produce? The government should buy all the maize produced and store in the national food security reserves even to export,” he said.

Hichilema expressed sadness over the failure by the government to provide strategic food reserves, adding that Zambia was a vulnerable nation to poverty, hunger and high levels of unemployment because of a leadership vacuum in government.

He said the government’s intention of making an artificial shortage of maize which was the staple food in order to award contracts to relatives to import GMOs for the people of Zambia would not work because Zambians had seen how wicked President Banda and his administration were.

“We are vulnerable as a country despite God giving us everything, these people are not buying, they want to make an artificial shortage of maize in the country so that their family members can import to Zambia GMOs and make a lot of profits. We have produced enough for government to buy and feed Zambians non-GMOs. This MMD has failed,” he said.

Hichilema said Zambians were unfortunate people to have a fatigued president to run the affairs of the nation.

And in his message to mark Farmers Day which falls today, Malambo said farmers were doing a lot but very little was being done in terms of helping them when it came to marketing.

“This year has been very hectic to the farmers. There is need for the government, the private sector and all the concerned Zambians to feel for the farmer and try to help them so that they become more productive,” Malambo said.

He urged the farmers to be very focused in their farming activities so that the country remained food sufficient.

Malambo also noted that the crop marketing exercise this year had not been good.

“The maize marketing, tobacco, cotton has not been well addressed this year, there is need for all the stakeholders together with the government as the facilitator to sit down with the farmers and come up the policies that will really help them,” said Malambo.

“The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) have started buying the maize but not in all the areas due to the moisture content but the private sector that are supposed to play a key role, look at the price that they are offering farmers beyond the cost of production. Let’s first of all look at the cost of production before we come up with the price…the private sector should have the interest in promoting the growth of the farmers not every time to be exploiting them.”

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, HUNGER, MAIZE, RUPIAH BANDA, UPND

posted by MrK @ 11:31 PM