ZAMBIA’S maize farmers should seriously respond to the challenge by the Government to produce more of this crop whose economic benefits are indisputably huge.
Granted the Southern African region does not experience drought, come next rainy season, Zambia is likely to have yet another maize bumper harvest just as it has had in the past few farming seasons.
Benefits of this likely scenario could be seen at both the levels of individual farmers themselves as well as the country at large.
To begin with, there has been an outcry that despite Zambia being very rich in mineral deposits, the country does not get enough revenue from the mines, majority of which are owned by foreign companies.
Besides, even if the national treasury were to get satisfactory revenue from the country’s mineral exports, there are risks to Zambia’s heavily copper-dependent economic outlook as this landlocked country remains vulnerable to external shocks.
These shocks, which have previously been felt from time to time, could reduce demand for copper and other mineral exports leading, consequently, to declining (copper) prices which could eventually hurt the economy.
In such a situation, farmers will come in handy because as we have seen in the past few farming seasons, they have been playing a critical role in the national economy.
It is clear that maize, and other agricultural products generally, can potentially add a significant dimension to wealth generated from within Zambia, as well as from the crop’s exports.
Consistent bumper harvests of maize, which so far stands out as a major crop product, will be exported in large quantities to neighbouring countries that are currently experiencing a deficit and thus earning Zambia the much-needed foreign exchange.
It is even pleasing to hear from Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Wylbur Simuusa saying the Government wants to see the country produce a ‘super bumper harvest’ during the 2014/15 farming season, some of which will be for export, thus boosting the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Apart from earning the country foreign exchange, agriculture has a dominant role to play in fighting poverty in the country, particularly maize, which is the staple food.
More maize production would translate into more sales even locally, meaning, as it does, more money for the maize traders and farmers alike, both commercial and small-scale.
Abundant maize supplies might further force millers and retailers to reduce the price of mealie-meal, whose hike in the past has partly been blamed on inadequate maize supplies.
The chain reaction of all this will be more and more households affording a decent meal and, eventually, drastic reduction in poverty levels.
Even as statistics show a positive trend of extreme poverty declining from around 60 per cent more than two decades ago to slightly over 50 per cent to date, the rate of further decline has been described as being just too slow to meet the target of 29 per cent next year, which would essentially halve extreme poverty in Zambia.
In the past, many farmers have brought out issues of crop marketing and security and have particularly demanded for favourable marketing policies, including a reasonably higher maize floor price, which they said were cardinal to ensuring the growth of agriculture as a viable commercial activity.
The farmers have further blamed the Food Reserve Agency for apparently holding on to payment for maize supplied to the Agency, charging that this tended to frustrate their efforts, especially that they needed the same money to pay for subsidised fertiliser under the Government-sponsored Farmer Input Support Programme.
Now with the assurance by My Simuusa that the Government last week released K60 million to kick-start the maize-buying exercise, and that 50 per cent of fertiliser has already been distributed in almost all the districts, the farmers should surely feel motivated to grow more maize for both the local and export markets.