By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
AGRICULTURE Deputy Minister Maxas Ng’onga has attributed the instability in mealie-meal price in the country to low milling capacity and the centralised nature of milling plants.
And National Union for Small Scale Farmers of Zambia (NUSSFZ) has urged Government to create capacity in the smallholder farmers to enable them participate in irrigation.
Mr Ng’onga said the centralised nature of milling plants had been causing instability and hikes in the mealie-meal prices which the Government would soon reverse by rolling out milling plants in maize production areas.
The deputy minister was speaking when he appeared on Zambia National Corporation (ZNBC) TV 1 programme dubbed “Food Security”.
“Low milling capacity in the country has been causing price instability of mealie meal, but Government is doing something to address the situation,” he said.
Mr Ng’onga also called for consumption diversification if the country was to see reduced mealie meal prices.
He said Government has in this farming season included more crops apart from maize under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) in an effort to encourage consumption of other food products.
“We need to change our consumption patterns, we use so much maize products in our dairy consumption and that requires change,” he said.
And NUSSFZ director general Frank Kayula said members had no capacity to take part in the irrigation programme that Government intend to embark on due to lack of irrigation equipment.
“There is need to create capacity in the small scale farmers in terms of providing irrigation equipment for them to participate in the growing of irrigated crops otherwise right now our members have no capacity to take up that,” he said.