NO FOOD IMPORTS FOR NOW, SAYS HH
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has directed that there will be no food imports for now until when the locally produced food is exhasted.
For now, there is need to manage what is in the country, Mr Hichilema said during a meeting with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) yesterday.
He said the government will identify entities with enough locally produced food which can be mobilised to save the people from starving.
He said government will ensure that it spends money on locally produced food instead of importing.
Mr Hichilema said rushing for imports will mean that money will be taken outside instead of securing it in the local economy.
“If we need to import let’s just import that is necessary but we need to put the money in the economy,” President Hichilema said.
And President Hichilema said he has been reliably informed that the country has recorded a low winter maize yield.
He said this is a serious matter which need to be addressed because it has the potential to affect the country’s food security.
“I am told that winter maize production is low, this is the issue which need to be resolved.
Mr Hichilema also expressed hope that the country should have done more to produce early maize instead of the 146, 000 metric tons.
“I wish we should have done more so that we don’t sit on 146, 000 metric tons, we could have been sitting on 300, 000, 350, 000 or 400, 000 metric tons of maize,” he said.
Meanwhile, ZNFU president Jervis Zimba said there is need to come up with hard decisions so that more food is produced to increase the food security.
Mr Zimba said certain things need to be done so that decisions can be made as soon as possible because farmers are only remaining with seven months to go into the next farming season.