ONE of the ways in which the country can maintain a stable and affordable price for mealie meal is by ensuring that more maize is harvested in the country.
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Having more maize on the market will ultimately result in having cheaper mealie meal. It will also save the public from being treated to the endless accusations and counter-accusations between the government and milling companies over the price.
Vice President Mutale Nalumango claims millers are greedy hence the high price of mealie meal on the market.
Government holds the key to ensure more maize is produced by not tampering with the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
Instead of reducing the number of beneficiaries under FISP, Government should in fact be talking of doubling the number of farmers benefitting under the scheme.
The Small-Scale Farmers Development Agency (SAFADA) has called on Government through the Ministry of Agriculture to reconsider its decision not to accommodate more farmers on FISP from the over one million beneficiaries currently.
Their suggestion makes sense.
As SAFADA Chief Executive Officer, Boyd Moobwe has said, there were still many small-scale farmers that were still in need of government support through FISP.
Mr. Moobwe added that instead of introducing different programmes such as the loan programme intended to benefit over 30, 000 farmers that are not on FISP, Government should instead work on a comprehensive agriculture support, which has the capacity to include all the aspects of FISP and the new loan programme.
FISP, despite the hitches experienced through the years has largely been a success in that it has seen more small-scale increase their yield, thereby ensuring food security in the nation.
Government began the programme in 2002, giving smallholder farmers a limited amount of commercial maize seed and inorganic fertiliser. This was expanded in 2015/16 to cover groundnuts, orange maize, common beans and cottonseed.
Government should therefore heed Mr Moobwe’s advice and increase the number of beneficiaries under FISP.
The new dawn administration cannot talk about increasing maize production while at the same time planning to reduce the number of FISP beneficiaries.
The bumper maize harvests that the country has achieved through the years has been due to the small-scale farmers who have benefitted from FISP.
With more small-scale farmers on FISP, the more food secure the country will become and this ultimately will keep the price of mealie meal down.
Agriculture Minister Reuben Mtolo Phiri should review his recent statement in parliament that Government does not intend to increase the number of beneficiaries under FISP in the 2023-2024 farming season.
Government instead wants to introduce a new loan programme to accommodate 30, 000 farmers who are not covered under FISP, a concept that few understand.
FISP, as we have noted has been a success amidst the bottlenecks to do with the distribution of farming inputs largely due to the government’s own making.
It is still the best way to go for a food secure Zambia.
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