By NATION REPORTER
The Patriotic Front (PF) has advised Government to immediately engage commercial farmers to consider growing winter maize before the food shortage degenerates into a crisis of unmanageable levels.
Brian Mundubile says the mealie meal crisis was likely to get worse if government was going to delay to put in immediate interventions such as encouraging commercial farmers to consider growing winter maize because Zambia was likely to record poor harvests as a result of the chaotic distribution of farming inputs.
Mr Mundubile said the current mealie meal shortage could have been avoided had Government listened to the many pleas that many Zambians made, especially opposition Members of Parliament who had strongly advised the Executive against the exportation of maize.
Mr. Mundubile said Government, however, remained adamant which had resulted to the shortage of mealie meal, forcing citizens to begin queuing and scrambling for the commodity.
Mr. Mundubile has predicted that there was a likelihood that the country is going to experience perennial food shortages not only because of the chaotic distribution of fertilizer but also because of the poor rainfall in some productive parts of the country.
He said the leadership has to work and find a durable solution away from Government giving contradictory statements and importing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Mr. Mundubile said the country had a lot of commercial farmers that Government should engage to appreciate why they were not growing winter maize on their own.
“Government should address their challenges in order to cure this current challenge of food crisis expeditiously. On behalf of the MPs and indeed my party, we feel very strongly about going forward and find find solution to this food crisis,” Mr Mundubile said.
Mr. Mundubile said one of the biggest problems that commercial farmers may have was the cost of electricity as fields would not be rain-fed, thereby needed a lot of electricity to produce crops.
He said the farmers could be motivated to grow winter maize if Government could come in to incentivize them by subsidising the cost of electricity.
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