FORMER minister of Agriculture and Livestock Wylbur Simuusa spoke encouraging words last year which gave Zambians hope that no one would face hunger.

. Simuusa

Mr Simuusa’s assurance came against the backdrop of consecutive maize bumper harvests which saw farmers, small-scale and commercial, country-wide produce more than what was expected of them.
Specifically referring to the 2013/2014 agriculture season, Mr Simuusa even spoke of expected maize carry-over stock, from that season, to the estimate for the total available maize for the 2014/2015 marketing season of some 3,947,863 metric tonnes.
The country’s maize carry-over stock was estimated to be 597,192 tonnes, most of which was said to be under safe storage with the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), private traders and commercial farmers.
It was clear that the previous seasons’ good maize harvests provided the country with a good opportunity to adequately feed the nation, with the potential to export the surplus crop.
This is because of the fact that Zambia’s total requirement for human consumption, strategic reserves, industrial requirements as well as other uses is currently estimated 2,795,358 tonnes.
As the former Agriculture minister aptly said, when the total maize requirements were subtracted from the estimated total maize availability, the food balance sheet indicated that the country even last farming season recorded a maize surplus of more than one million metric tonnes.
These statistics surely leave no room for any part of the country to be threatened with food shortage and, consequently, hunger.
It is, therefore, sad to hear the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) announcing that some parts of the country are expected to be hit by hunger.
Affected areas are Western Province and the traditionally maize-producing regions of Southern and Central provinces, all of which reportedly have experienced dry spells.
It is, however, pleasing to note that the DMMU under the Vice-President’s office has not stood by with arms akimbo as it is ready to distribute relief food in these provinces.
Looking at the fact that current Minister of Agriculture Given Lubinda has been urging millers to reduce the prices of mealie-meal, it appears even those people who do not stand to receive DMMU’s relief maize supplies will equally benefit.
Mealie-meal prices are set to reduce from more than K60 per 50 kilogramme bag of breakfast to and less than K40 for roller meal.
Of course such indicators were reflected in last season’s Crop Forecasting Survey in which the food balance sheet showed that Zambia’s estimated population of 14 million people required about 1.5 million tonnes of maize for human consumption while 355,630 tonnes was needed for industrial use.
If the country last farming season recorded a maize surplus of more than one million metric tonnes, there is no need for some people to worry about hunger because there certainly should be enough in reserves.
Such optimism arises from the facts on the ground where in the past few seasons the country has been recording maize bumper harvests.
For instance, according to last year’s forecast, maize production was expected to, and actually did, exceed the previous season’s production by 32.29 per cent.
Even earlier in the 2010/2011 farming season, Zambia produced 3,020,380 tonnes, and this was more than what the country produced in 2009/2010 which stood at 2,795,483 tonnes.
Such high yields have been realised thanks to the Government’s increase in the number of beneficiaries in the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) to one million small and medium-scale farmers.
For this reason, Zambia has been forecast to produce the highest quantity of maize every other season, and this has prompted calls for a reduction in the prices of the staple food, thus giving hope that no area in the country could experience hunger.
So if some parts really face hunger, this will be a temporary setback, an unforeseen circumstance that will easily be redressed by maize from previous bumper harvests and is now in reserve.