Zambia records another food surplus

Zambia has recorded a food surplus in the midst of rising food prices in the world. This is as a result of good agriculture policies, good rains or weather and personal and collective efforts by the farmers.

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Agriculture minister Sara Sayifwanda said Zambia this year recorded a maize surplus of 143,000 tonnes in the 2007/2008 farming season.

Last year, a similar announcement was echoed but what has left me wondering is where this food is going.

I am saying this not because I am an armchair critic but because the large population of Zambia has remained hungry.

If we are talking about food surpluses, then we should be able to see a change on people stomachs and diets.

However, what we have seen is the opposite. There is widespread hunger and hopelessness on the on over 75 per cent of Zambia’s people. And this is largely because of the absence of food.

In fact, the food situation in Zambia has not changed because prices have remained high, most shelves are empty and over and above, there is no purchasing power in the people’s pockets.

There is more that needs to be done to translate the agriculture production into actual food on the table for sores of families across the country.

For instance, we need an effective storage system that should be able to save food for the whole country long after the harvesting has been done.

We also need to satisfy our own home locally before we can think about exports. Our efforts for economic prosperity should not be propelled by hard cash.

My critics have sounded the alarm against moves to export Zambian produced food to other areas of the region before the local population could have enough to eat.

It is also worrying to see that there are so many challenges facing our agriculture sector especially the livestock sector where disease have continued to wipe out animals.

Lesson can be learnt from neighbouring Botswana, where the livestock industry is the one that drives the local economy.

Zambia was once a food basket for the SADC region contributing a large percentage of the needed food.

Now, it looks like that has remained in the books of history, but with collective efforts, Zambia can redeem itself and re-write history.

With the abundant food at our hands, it is only wise that we handle the wealth wisely and distribute it from surplus areas to needy places where the resources are needed.