By NATION REPORTER
GIVEN the severity of the mealie meal shortages around the Country, President Hakainde Hichilema must urgently set up a task force on maize and mealie meal to respond to the current and impending situation, Golden Party of Zambia (GPZ) president Jackson Silavwe has said.
Mr Silavwe said the current intervention measures by the Government to arrest the situation were haphazard and uncoordinated.
He proposed that government should halt all maize and mealie meal exports until the local market was fully replenished and staple food secure.
Mr Silavwe said government needed to inject more money into the Zambia National Service (ZNS) mealing plants to scale up production to meet one third of the National demand in the Short and Medium.
He also urged government to review downwards the amount of maize exports from approximately 1.2 million metric tonnes to 200 thousand metric tonnes in the Short term.
Mr Silavwe called for countering the high cost of living with low cost of doing business to give individuals and businesses increased spending power in the short and medium term.
He also said government needed to push local high quality start ups by Zambians in the agriculture sector to the tune of US$250 million in the long term.
“Government should direct all constituencies to buy a tractor from the CDF allocation for small scale farmers.Capitalise the Zambia National Service (ZNS) to commence all year round farming and progressively roll out the program to local small scale farmer’s country wide,” Mr Silavwe said.
He said mealie meal was part of the culture of the Zambian people hence it would require a cultural shock to diversify to other alternative meals.
Mr Silavwe said looking at the political connotations of the maize meal, it will at be at the peril of the Government if it does respond accordingly.
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