Banana farmers won’t be compensated - Kazonga
Banana farmers won’t be compensated - KazongaBy Bright Mukwasa and Mutale Kapekele
Sat 12 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
THE government will not compensate ba-nana farmers whose infected plantations are earmarked for destruction, says agriculture minister Dr Eustarkio Kazonga.
Making a ministerial statement in Parliament on Wednesday, Dr Kazonga said the banana bunchy top disease (BBTD), which had spread to other provinces apart from Southern Province, was negatively affecting banana farmers.
“The government has no plan to compensate the farmers once it destroys diseased plants as it is for their own good,” Dr Kazonga said.
He said the disease, the origin of which was unknown, had forced some farmers to abandon banana cultivation.
“The potential for banana production in Zambia is very high, estimated at 60 metric tonnes per hectare annually. This potential is under threat by the spread of BBTV,” he said.
He said surveys carried out in 2009 and last year indicated the presence of the disease about 11 years ago in Chipata, although it was reported less than ten years ago in other districts.
Dr Kazonga said the government was encouraging farmers to apply stringent control measures, including the uprooting and destruction of infected crops as a control measure.
He said the government was facing a challenge in controlling the disease because of a lack of a reliable source of disease materials.
“In 2007, a survey of 20 farms covering about 212 hectares of farms under banana cultivation in Central and Copperbelt provinces revealed a 65 per cent infection,” he said.
Dr Kazonga the government would establish a farmer-based banana seed system through production of tissue cultured disease-free planting materials.
BBTD has been identified in Lusaka, Southern, Central, Copperbelt and Luapula provinces.
The disease is transmitted by a virus called banana bunchy top virus.
Labels: COMPENSATION, EUSTARKIO KAZONGA, FARMERS
posted by MrK @ 5:00 AM
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