ZAMBIA has been grappling with the challenges of grain storage facilities, and this has been the case year in and year out.
With the country recording another bumper harvest of not less than 3.3 million tonnes in the 2013/2014 farming season, the issue of inadequate grain storage facilities remains.
The most affected parts in the country are the far-flung rural areas which in most cases have no access to roads, and this has resulted in food wastage.
But even in the event of such areas being accessible, transport costs, coupled with high prices of fuel, among other challenges, set in and this has greatly affected the farmers.
No wonder some farmers have been calling for an increase in the maize floor prices from the current K65 to at least K120 per 50 kilogramme bag to help them recover losses incurred on transport costs.
This is why the National Union for Small-Scale Farmers of Zambia (NUSFAZ) has also been calling on the Government to liberalise crop purchases.
The reason for this is because farmers, especially in rural areas, incur huge losses when transporting grain hundreds of kilometres to the nearest markets.
Only two reasons are at play and these are the lack of enough grain storage facilities in these areas and, secondly, poor road and communication infrastructure.
But this will be a thing of the past as the Government has now started investing massively in grain storage facilities around the country.
For example, the Government has spent K23 million to put up four maize storage facilities on the Copperbelt to increase capacity from the current 65,000 to 85,000 tonnes.
The Government has, in addition, started construction and rehabilitation of about 98 maize storage sheds and silos throughout the country.
It is also impressive that the Government has spent not less than K6 million to construct maize storage sheds in Kawambwa District alone.
The facilities in Kawambwa will hold about 140,000 x 50 Kilogramme bags of maize and this will reduce food wastage.
As Kawambwa District Commissioner (DC) Ivo Mpasa has said, bringing maize storage facilities closer to the farmers will help to reduce food wastage and transport costs being incurred, especially by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), when taking the grain to safe storage.
Following the amendment of the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) Act in 2005, which gave the Agency the mandate to include crop marketing, it was faced with immense pressure to increase maize storage capacity to match bumper harvests the country has been recording over the years.
With the Government now getting serious on maize silos and storage sheds, capacity has increased from 623,700 tonnes in 2005 to about 750,000 tonnes in 2012. This represents about 19 per cent in overall maize storage capacity.
The Government has done very well in this area and, more resources permitting to put up more silos and maize storage sheds around the country, there will be no more food wastage and Zambia will not only have enough for the export market but enhance food security as well.