By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA, CHATULA KANGALI & KENNEDY MUPESENI –
The Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) has led a chorus of disapproval from stakeholders in the agricultural sector unhappy at government’s decision to reserve the recently-imposed ban on the importation of vegetable and fruit products.
ZNFU boss Jervis Zimba said government was losing US$42 million annually on importation of vegetables while adhering to the COMESA protocols that other member states seemed to be ignoring.
He argued that the move would discourage farmers and frustrate the crop diversification which could have been triggered had the government stuck with the ban.
“Why should the country import tomatoes, onions, watermelon, butternut and pineapples which are already in abundance and farmers are struggling to sell them? As a country, it is high time we started feeding ourselves,” he said.
Mr Zimba wondered why Zambia was so tied up with the COMESA trade protocols when other member countries were not following the guidelines on the regional agreement, and gave an example of Zimbabwe which had banned the importation of agricultural products.
The Government announced on Monday that it had reversed the ban on the importation of vegetables and fruit and cited Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trade protocols.
But Mr Zimba said that if Zambia did not retaliate against the protectionist actions of other countries, the country would become a dumping place for agricultural products.
He said apart from very few fruit types, like apples, grapes and pears, the Zambian climate was conducive to the production of a whole range of others and vegetable that were now being allowed back into the country.
His comments were supported by the Buy Zed Campaign which described Government’s climb-down on administrative ban on the importation of vegetables and fruit products as unacceptable to the farmers.
Separately, Buy Zed Campaign managing consultant Evans Ngoma said the reversal would work against government’s decision to improve farming in Zambia.
In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Ngoma said the Ministry of Commerce was making it difficult for farmers to diversify into other crops.
“We are very disappointed with the Government’s decision to reverse the ban on the importation of vegetables and fruits…this is unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Ngoma said farmers had made significant progress to improve their capacity and form groups to meet the local demand.
He said the high cost of inputs, chemicals and fuel does was making it difficult for small scale farmers to compete favourably with the bigger players.
Other observers have said the move will discourage farmers from increasing production of winter crops in the country.
Fresh produce farmers and dealers have said the move will significantly reduce morale in the farmers who were hoping for a boost after the earlier announcement.
Kelvin Bulaya, a tomato farmer, said Government needed to be firm and consistent in its policies for the agricultural sector begin to contribute more to the economic growth of the country.
“Regional protocols should not force us to stop providing guidelines on certain things because other jurisdictions are doing it…they are imposing restrictions on certain products,” he said.
Mr Bulaya said the development would have led to increased production fresh produce as access to market had been one of the major hindrance to the growth of the agriculture sector
Boyd Mweemba, a Chingola-based vegetable and fruit supplier, also observes the development would have encourage winter cropping in the country.
“This would have encouraged more framers to engage in the growing of winter crops which would contribute significantly to the economic development.