Bumper maize harvest relief to families

By Pelekelo Liswaniso

THE announcement by Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Brian Chituwo, that the country has recorded a maize surplus this year is welcome news to most households.

Dr Chituwo said on Thursday that the country has recorded a maize surplus of 203, 271 metric tonnes, which is sufficient both for human consumption and industrial utilization.

The maize surplus is a relief in most homes because families will now anticipate a reduction in the prices of mealie meal and other products, whose prices went up because there were insufficient stocks of the commodity in the country.

Maize was in some cases imported at a great cost forcing some millers to increase prices due to high production costs.

Government through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) was in the process prompted to subsidise the commodity to cushion the impact of high production costs and enable families afford to buy the staple food.

Now that the country has been informed of a bumper harvest, the nation is anxious to know what the floor price will be so that farmers, millers and other stakeholders can decide what to do this season.

We urge the Government to quickly announce the floor price of maize so that the farming community particularly peasant farmers do not rush to sell their maize to traders who will not receive value for their produce.

We, however, hope that the abundance of maize in the country will enable millers to cut on their production costs and pass on the benefit to consumers by reducing the price of roller and breakfast meal as well as stockfeed to ease the price of poultry products.

In light of the surplus, the government can also review the issue of maize exports but we wish to caution that exports be allowed only when the country has sufficient stocks in strategic reserves.

The experience of the recent past when emergency measures had to be instituted to import the commodity was costly and should be avoided by ensuring that the country has enough and affordable maize stocks to last until the next season.

We urge both large and small scale farmers to expand their hectares and stock enough seed to plant next season so that the country can have another bumper harvest.

We also urge the nation to work harder to produce other food crops because this year’s bumper maize r harvest is an indication that it is possible for Zambia to feed itself.

We believe the same attitude of hard work can be extended to other products so that the country can reduce its dependence on imports especially in view of the current global economic recession.