Maravi

Expert calls for review of agriculture policy

Expert calls for review of agriculture policy
By By Gift Chanda
Tue 18 Jan. 2011, 03:59 CAT

ZAMBIA should move towards crop diversification to guarantee national food security and economic growth, says an agriculture expert.

In an interview, Dr Thomson Kalinda, who is head of Agricultural Economics and Extension Department at the University of Zambia, said there was need to review the agriculture policy, especially the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) if the agriculture sector is to record meaningful growth.

Dr Kalinda observed that the current growth in the sector was only tied to maize.

“Yes, the government is doing a lot, pouring in money in the sector but these efforts need to be reviewed time after time because you could be misdirecting your efforts if you do not do that.

Currently, we should strike a balance in which crop we should produce more because we could be producing more of a crop that we do not need at that time,” he said.

And Dr Kalinda has urged the government to adequately prepare for the next maize marketing season to avoid wastage of crops.

He said there was need for the government to move swiftly and put strategies in place to effectively handle maize marketing next year.

“The government should take a holistic view this time, there was a big challenge in maize marketing last year, FRA the Food Reserve Agency for the first time was handling such large volumes… but a lot needs to be done to address the challenges,” he said.

Dr Kalinda said input costs for farmers should be reduced further if maize prices were to come down to competitive levels in the region.

After recording a bumper harvest last year, the government allowed farmers and traders to export the maize surplus of 1.1 million tonnes in a bid to avoid excess carryover maize that threatened the domestic prices in the next crop marketing season. But the country has struggled to export the surplus maize.

“The landing cost of maize from South Africa into Congo DR is lower than that of Zambia. If we are to compete, then we have to deal with our production costs, address the fuel and transport costs because other countries are landing the same maize cheaper in these markets.

Our maize prices should come down to regional levels,” Dr Kalinda said.
He proposed the introduction of tax waivers on maize exports and other incentives to make exports cheaper.

Dr Kalinda, however, opposed proposals by farmers that the government should subsidise exports to allow excess maize to be exported to guarantee higher domestic prices.

“I do not think subsidising exports is ideal because it’s not sustainable and not a good economic practice. We should be looking at the problem from a bigger picture, policy review,” said Dr Kalinda.

Labels: FISP

posted by MrK @ 5:56 PM