FORMER AGRICULTURE MINISTER DEFENDS GOVERNMENT ON MEALIE MEAL SHORTAGE
By Chileshe Mwango
Former Agriculture Minister in the MMD government, Peter Daka has leaped to the defense of the government over the ongoing shortage of mealie-meal in the country and has attributed the situation to factors such as climate change which he says is inhibiting production.
The current climate change-induced challenges in agriculture have been said to have the potential to threaten agro-processing and food security with floods or droughts among factors that can negatively affect yields.
And Mr. Daka has noted the need for Zambia to build capacity among subsistence farmers through solar projects that will allow them to farm all year round if the country is to leverage its agro-processing potential in view of the effects of climate change on the agriculture sector.
Mr. Daka is advising stakeholders including the government to go back to the primaries and allow small-scale farmers, to mechanize so that their yields increase.
He is concerned that currently, farmers put a lot of labor and resources into crop production but end up with small yields, hence the need to enhance support by utilizing solar to access underground water to farm all year round.
PHOENIX NEWS