MAIZE is Zambia’s staple food which, therefore, should be affordable to all and sundry.
Zambia has scored many successes in food production, which has so far enhanced the country’s food security.
The last two farming seasons have seen the agriculture sector record encouraging results in maize yields.
For example, in the 2012/2013 farming season, Zambia recorded 2.5 million tonnes of maize while in the 2013-2014 harvest, the country recorded a super bumper of not less than 3.4 million tonnes.
This is quite remarkable considering that the Government has made tremendous efforts to increase maize production by ensuring that all farming inputs are distributed in time.
Apart from that, the Government has gone full throttle to put up new grain silos and sheds to make sure that no food goes to waste due to poor storage.
Not only that, the Government has invested huge sums of money to rehabilitate roads and bridges that link high food production areas around the country.
Coupled with good storage facilities, the country is now assured of food security and the surplus can be exported within and outside the region to earn the country much-needed foreign exchange.
With all this in line, Zambian citizens will not go hungry as food will be readily available to them at any given time of the year.
It is in this light that we support calls by the Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA) for the Government to establish milling companies in all the provincial centres.
Establishment of milling plants in provincial centres will in the long run help to mitigate the high prices of mealie meal obtaining in the country.
This should be so because despite the country recording super bumper harvests, the price of mealie meal, especially in the far-flung rural areas, have remained high and unaffordable to many a common man.
It is also for this reason that we concur with the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) for praising the Patriotic Front (PF) Government’s policy of increasing maize storage capacity which will help to reduce post-harvest crop losses.
Indeed, maize storage needs to be adequate if the country is to accommodate the increasing annual maize output.
Among things that the Government has done well is the empowerment of small-scale farmers who will help to increase maize production and strengthen food security.
As President Michael Sata said in his key note speech to the fourth session of the 11th National Assembly, the Government’s strategic focus in the agriculture sector is to achieve food security, promote crop diversification, as well as increase productivity and value-addition.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon all stakeholders, including the private sector, to support the Government in its quest to develop the agriculture sector and ensure stability in the prices of the staple food.
Suggestions by ZACA, for example, are among the many bright ideas aimed at bringing prices of mealie meal to lower levels, making the commodity affordable and, in the process, ensuring food security.