‘PLANT EARLY MAIZE ALL YEAR’

PLANTING of early maize should be adopted as an all year round programme for commercial farmers to ensure steady supply of maize on the market to keep mealie meal prices down, former deputy minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Maxas Ng’onga has advised.

Mr Ng’onga however said farmers should be allowed to sell their produce at reasonable prices if they were to successfully venture into early maize farming.

He said in an interview that early maize farming was an expensive undertaking as it depended on irrigation.

Mr Ng’onga, who is Kaputa Member of Parliament said if farmers in Zambia could be getting value for their investments, it would be easy for them to venture into viable programmes such as early maize farming.

He said planting early maize throughout the year would ensure stable supply of maize on the market to keep mealie meal prices down.

Mr Ng’onga thanked Government for offering farmers a reasonable price for their maize last year, saying that farmers needed to make profit out of their investments if they were to be encouraged to produce more.

“Farmers also need to get value for their money if they are to be encouraged to produce more or even engage in early maize planting. There should be a balance, when they spend on farming inputs they should be able to recoup their money,” he said.

And Mr Ng’onga said his constituents were happy with the current reduction in prices of mealie meal across the country. He commended government and all stakeholders for ensuring that the rapid increase in mealie meal prices was curtailed.

Mr Ng’onga however said people expected the price of the commodity to reduce further.

“We just hope with these rains we are experiencing now, we will be able to harvest something from what we already have in the fields,” he said.