In a significant boost to Zambia’s efforts towards food security, commercial farmers have delivered over 6,000 metric tonnes of early maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) under the Early Maize Programme.
The delivery, equivalent to 121,614 fifty-kilogram bags of non-genetically modified Grade A white maize, marks a crucial milestone in the country’s response to the prevailing drought situation. This achievement comes after Republican President Hakainde Hichilema launched the early maize harvest programme on March 18th, 2024, at SADOT Farms in Mkushi District.
Under the auspices of this special programme, 55 commercial farmers were contracted to cultivate maize, aiming to address the challenges posed by the drought and bolster national food security. The FRA’s target procurement stands at 146,000 metric tonnes, with the recent delivery of 6,080.73 metric tonnes representing a significant step towards meeting this goal.
The remaining balance is anticipated to be delivered by the conclusion of June this year, ensuring a steady supply of maize to replenish national strategic food reserves.
Initiated by the government through the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), in collaboration with the FRA, the Early Maize Programme serves as a strategic intervention to supplement existing initiatives aimed at ensuring sustained national food security.
Beyond mitigating the impact of drought, the programme seeks to stimulate maize production by encouraging commercial farmers to engage in both rain-fed and irrigated early maize cultivation. Leveraging modern irrigation and mechanized drying technologies, the initiative enables farmers to produce maize during lean periods of the year, enhancing overall agricultural resilience.
Operating under a contract-farming model, the programme offers incentives such as cost-reflective pricing, incentivizing farmer participation and commitment to production targets.
The FRA remains optimistic that the successful implementation of the Early Maize Programme will yield positive outcomes, bolstering national strategic food reserves and safeguarding Zambia’s food security in the face of external challenges.
I think that there’s a misuse of vocabulary here. How does delivery of 6,080 tons of maize become significant against the national annual requirement of 2,100,000 tons? Don’t give people false hope. Just say that some farmers have delivered 6,080 tons of maize because we all know that commercial farmers currently don’t have the capacity to feed the nation. It’s always peasant farmers that have provided food security for many years.
You have a problem in your head. Remove that negative attitude towards government, from your head. There is a great difference between delivering something and delivering nothing.
Survivers
We have to be concerned if he and his friends will survive beyond 2031…..?
Because this UPND is ruling beyond 2031…..
Ayatollah, get atleast, minimum , 10 KG of anti anxiety and depression medicines ready……….you will need it
We are here……….
Forwardee 2031……….
Its remarkable considering the challenges the region is facing. For your own information, All countries in the region have declared their national disasters. Previously white farmers were producing maize for stock feed. Government has since convinced them to deliver to FRA which is a huge plus.
Even in the face of poor input distribution and sharing of seed and fertilizer on medas, peasant farmers were able to deliver 341,000 tons of maize to FRA the last marketing season. Anyone with a brain that’s working would concentrate on this category of farmers. But because so many brains in charge aren’t working, the whole government machinery moved into Mkushi to celebrate the cultivation of 6,080 tons of maize. To them 341,000 wasn’t worth of any headline. When you die, it’s others that feel the pain, it’s the same when you’re st upid. It’s the masses that are feeling the pain
Ayatollah will never appreciate anything that this government will do. He’s an ukwanized being.
Mwelesa, what shall save us from these Chipantepante souls. Whose aim is to work with foreigners to destroy our very fabric of existence? The jigsaw puzzle is fitting in place. We have sellouts in power. Their hearts are not with the people that put them in power but the foreigners. There is no way that this man who we thought was intelligent can continue to act so dumb and literally pride in commissioning incomplete toilets.
A failed government will sell all those tones.