By FRANCINA CHOMBA –
THE quest for value addition has been the cry of farmers who have not reaped the benefits of their sweat due to low crop prices.
But this will soon be a thing of the past for maize farmers in Southern Province following the commissioning of the first ever and the largest Zambia National Service (ZNS) milling plant in Monze.
The plant, with a capacity of 240 tonnes, is one of the three factories constructed with the aim of complimenting Government efforts in reducing the price of mealie-meal on the local market.
The multi-million dollar state-of-the-art plant will provide a ready market for maize and put an end to the proliferation of mealie-meal prices locally.
Following the commissioning of the plant, farmers in Southern Province have been challenged to take advantage of the facility to expand their maize grain production as they now have easy and readily accessible market at the ZNS milling plant.
Instead of getting duped by unscrupulous briefcase grain buyers, farmers can now establish a reliable supply through the plant, which has been unveiled at their door step.
It is envisaged that the milling plant will not only produce mealie-meal at a reduced cost, but it will also enable Zambia to effectively secure food supply, stabilize food prices, create more jobs, raise people’s income and promote the coordinated development of its economy and society.
Currently, shopping outlets are selling a 25 kilogramme (kg) bag of mealie-meal between K125 and K150.
According to the Government, it is unacceptable to have fluctuating mealie -meal prices in the country as this has denied citizens from low income households to have easy access to the commodity for improved nutrition.
Defense Minister Ambrose Lufuma who commissioned the milling plant on Monday this week, said Government wants to stabilise the sector for staple food so that the rural communities can enjoy improved nutrition and be lifted out of abject poverty.
The news brought smiles to the local people knowing that their plight had been addressed.
Mr Lufuma said in honouring the campaign promises of the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND), the Government will remain steadfast in keeping the prices of essential commodities like meali-meal within the reach of low income earners in the nation and this is evidenced by the recently commissioned ZNS milling plant which will soon start producing the Eagle Milling brand for local shops and supermarkets.
“Zambians should, therefore, be assured that my Government remains steadfast in honouring our campaign promise of keeping the prices of essential commodities within the reach of low-income earners in the nation,” Mr Lufuma said.
The Defense minister stressed that the move to have Government institutions like ZNS add value to the country’s staple grain is in no way meant to stifle private sector players.
“To the contrary, my Government considers all private milling companies as key drivers of our job creation agenda. We shall, therefore, support their continued growth, especially considering that there is quite a huge under-exploited market in the SADC region,” Mr Lufuma said.
He assured the country that the Government will continue to relax trading conditions for the private sector to export their mealie-meal and maize bran without undue hindrance.
The minister acknowledged that after all, Zambia needs every private sector player to join hands with the Government and become strategic partners in earning the nation the much needed foreign exchange.
With ZNS having being associated with large scale maize production for years now, Mr Lufuma challenged the service to lead the way in providing the required feedstock for the plant.
He wants to see ZNS build on the current grain output levels by quickly bringing the newly acquired pieces of land to production.
Mr Lufuma directed the ZNS commandant to be more robust in maize production in order for the industrial milling plant to operate optimally.
He said the plant would require huge quantities of maize grain.
“It is also our hope that the operationalisation of the plant will trigger increased productivity of not only dairy and beef cattle, but also the productivity of poultry sub-sector in the entire Southern Province and the nation at large,” Mr Lufuma said.
To address the high levels of unemployment among the young people in the country, ZNS intends to engage the youth through co-operatives as its sales agents.
This would effectively feed into the ambitious efforts of the Government to significantly reduce the high levels of unemployment.
ZNS Commandant Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi said riding on the service’s first pillar, which is “ enhancing national food security”, ZNS wants to give comfort to the local grain farmers.
He said the ZNS Monze milling plant is going to be the farmers’ reliable grain buyer so that they are able to produce more knowing they have guaranteed market.
Lt General Solochi is optimistic that the industrial plant would support the Government’s aspiration to transform the agricultural sector, thereby making the country food secure.
“It is also our plan that ZNS can be made more relevant to the aspirations of Government and the Zambian people by combining its role of providing skills to the youth with that of empowerment. To that end we want to position this industrial milling plant in a way that it becomes a catalyst for employment creation for our young people,” he said.
Working closely with stakeholders, ZNS intends to organize some enterprising youths in some form of co-operatives so that they can become effective sales agents of its meali-meal and maize bran.
The service also intends to provide reliable linkages to youths interested to venture into livestock production for them to have assured access to affordable stock feed.
Lt General Solochi said the milling plant would help to build momentum for ambitious programmes of building and running an efficient diversified industry.
He said as a way to enhance ZNS contribution to the New Dawn Government’s drive to transform the agricultural sector, the organisation also intends to streamline operations of some of its agricultural units to make them responsive to the anticipated changes.
In this regard, ZNS has embarked on a programme to bring major agricultural units to all-year round production.
The service will also expand production of high value crops.
This has elated Small Scale Farmers Development Association (ZAFADA), which has challenged farmers to boost production and take advantage of the readily available market at the ZNS milling plant to supply their grain in an effort to supplement the Government’s efforts to reduce meali-meal prices.
SAFADA Executive Director Boyd Moobwe said the installation of the milling plant in Monze comes at the right time when the country is expected to face food insecurity due to climate change and its impact agriculture.
Mr Moobwe said he was optimistic that Zambia would manage to maintain national food security and supply mealie-meal to the local market even when the small scale farmers faced difficulties to produce enough maize due to effects of drought or prolonged dry spells.
Small and Medium Enterprise Minister Elias Mubanga challenged the youth to form co-operatives in order to benefit from business opportunities created at the newly commissioned plant.
Speaking in an interview, Mr Mubanga said once the youth formed co-operatives, his ministry would facilitate for them to purchase meali-meal and maize bran from ZNS for re-sale on the local market at an affordable price.
He said in his ministry would work with ZNS to ensure that the fluctuating meali-meal prices in the country are dealt with.
He said the Government is committed to reducing the high levels of unemployment through job creation.
Mr Mubanga, who called for mindset change among the young people, said entrepreneurial skills training would enable them to understand the importance of venturing into business activities.
The minister commended President Hakainde Hichilema for the initiative of installing industrial milling plants through ZNS, which would create job opportunities especially for the young people.
Monze Member of Parliament (MP) Jack Mwiimbu said the plant would not only produce meali-meal for the people, but it would also create about 200 employment opportunities.
Mr Mwiimbu, who is also Home Affairs and Internal Security minister, appealed to traditional leaders in Southern Province to urge their subjects to supply the necessary requisite ingredients, mostly maize, to the milling plant for it to run effectively.
He said the plant, which has been built by the government of China, would help to cement relations between the Zambia and China and also remain a reminder to the people of the longstanding relations between the two countries.
Southern Province Minister Cornelius Mwetwa said the milling plant is of great consequential benefits because it has unlocked opportunities for a number of the youth to be employed.
Mr Mwetwa said Monze would no longer export maize in its raw form, but would export enormous amounts of maize bran and mealie-meal which are final products of maize.
He said the commissioning of the plant resonates well with the Government’s move to increase the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from K 1.6 million in this year’s budget to K 25.7 million in next year’s budget which will lead to a number of youths and women venturing into various livelihood activities for income generation.
ZNS Chief of the Monze Milling Plant Colonel Jim Kafumukache said the factory is more than ready to flood the local shops and super markets with the Eagle Milling mealie-meal brand.
Colonel Kafumukache further called on the business community to position itself to take full advantage of the business linkages and opportunities the plant would present going forward.
The Monze Milling plant, which was constructed under the China Aid Project, has capacity of producing more than 5,000 by 25kg bags of breakfast mealie-meal, over 3,000 by 25kg bags of roller meal and more than 1,000 by 25kg bags of maize bran per day.
This invariably makes it the largest milling plant in the country.