PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says he strongly believes that Zambia has the ability and potential to turn the global food crisis into a challenge for increased production of winter crops such as wheat, maize and many others for local and international markets and help stabilise the country’s food security apart from job creation.
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And Mr. Hichilema has challenged farmers to increase food production as a response to the global food insecurity crisis leading to high costs of food, given the incentives his government is offering them.
President Hichilema says the incentives being offered to farmers are meant to encourage them to increase agriculture production in the face of challenging climatic conditions which have so far affected prices of commodities such as fuel and food.
In a statement issued by Clayson Hamasaka, the State House Chief Communications Specialist, President Hichilema is delighted that ZAMBEEF and other agro producers had positively responded to the new dawn administration’s call for increased agriculture production and registering a record harvest of wheat this year.
Mr Hamasaka said President Hichilema who officially launched the 2023 wheat harvest in Mpongwe on Thursday is determined to make Zambia not only food secure but also making it affordable to all Zambians.
The launch happened at ZAMBEEF’s Mpongwe Farm.
Mr Hamasaka said President Hichilema was delighted to learn that as ZAMBEEF was harvesting the winter wheat, the company had also embarked on planting early maturing maize because of the attractive and profitable prices offered by Government.
“The President appreciates ZAMBEEF’s partnership with the government, whose investment in agriculture has created thousands of direct jobs and has integrated more than 100, 000 small-scale farmers in its diversified supply chain.
He appealed to ZAMBEEF to consider incentives for local communities such as out grower schemes and extension services so they can equally increase the output per hectare,” Mr Hamasaka said.
He said President Hichilema was pleased that ZAMBEEF would be developing an additional 5, 000 hectares at their farm in Mpongwe that would produce over 40, 000 metric tonnes of winter wheat, thereby doubling the current production capacity.
“The Head of State fully appreciates the construction of the state-of-the-art flour mill, at the Mpongwe farm, which is another milestone that will help generate more value for the company, as well as significantly reduce the cost of processing the raw material into finished products,” Mr Hamasaka said.
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