Let’s brace for disaster, there will be no food – Mukupa
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
FORMER PF chairman Samuel Mukupa says Zambians should brace for disaster as the country is likely to experience a shortage of maize grain.
He told The Mast in an interview that the government should be thinking of importing maize.
“If people say the truth they are vilified but I am not afraid. I think let us brace for disaster. There will be no food. As it is people
are scrounging. The granaries are empty including the strategic reserves. We have what they call briefcase businessmen coming all the way; some of them from Kenya, some of them from Tanzania. Normally, they could not get into hinterland to this extent but they are doing so. That simply explains that I think in terms of strategising, as a nation, we have lost our vision. Strategic food reserves may not be sufficient and this is a very critical issue, I am afraid. So if you are talking abouthousehold security, the period going into the next year, I am sorry, the truth of the matter is that it’s gona be disaster.
Mark my words. I know people in authority wouldn’t want to hear that story but like anybody else you will be able to ask, they will say the same
things. They need to begin to plan for importing food particularly grain. We are in serious trouble,” Mukupa said. “People are saying there is enough grain. Are they sure? Last time we were told there was no need for panicking because there will be no
shortage of electricity and there were blackouts. Because we were exporting everything, now we have to import in order to subsidise. This is where we have a problem and this kind of planning is not good. For us
in Mporokoso we know when the FRA (Food Reserve Agency) sheds are full. As it is, they are empty.”
He said there was need for innovation in managing risks of food insecurity.
“You people who are close to authorities kindly inform them that in the area of food security, we are in a critical situation. And this is not the situation for Mporokoso only. This is the situation everywhere. When you get into Nsama, particularly when you get into Nsumbu, how much is a 50 kg bag of maize selling now? It is K350. Then you will know and understand the gravity of the issue,” Mukupa said. “I am a peasant farmer, I am doing farming to feed myself. I don’t want to buy anything from the market. I want have self-sufficiency. If I have surplus, others might need it. If it is doing marketing for
maize which is highly commercialised I will have difficulties with that one. You need a lot of money and I don’t think I have that money.
Tell them you spoke to Mr Kandolo (sweet potatoes) and he raised concerns. We have not gotten at K350 a bag here in Mporokoso. It only demonstrates to you that there is no maize. If you take the same bag of maize to Nakonde, it is fetching as high as K450. If they have the maize, let them bring the maize.”
He said there was need to ramp up production at all levels in the country.
“I am in Mporokoso farming, we need to be going into production. If we don’t produce, we will die. We will die of hunger. I have
cultivated sufficient kandolo. Sufficient groundnuts. Suffcient cassava, sufficient millets. I could not cultivate maize because we don’t have fertiliser. The unvailability of fertiliser on this part of the earth cili kwati chishimba, kwati lusengo lya mbwa. (its like a horn of a dog). Have you ever seen a horn of a dog? Because it does not have one, so if somebody say go and look for a horn, they are obviously trying to confining you to a futile exercise. Finding fertiliser is extremely difficult. Even those that were stocking they knew, they were not going to make a lot of money.
It was very expensive. In fact in this part of the world, the rains are heavy. So we need more amounts of fertiliser than is normally stocked and so that has been the most difficult part. In terms hectarage under cultivation, for maize that is very
insubstantial and I want to think that most people that depend on maize will possibly end up in abject hunger,” said Mukupa. “As it is a good number have resorted to chitemene. So that they could have enough millet. They have resorted to cassava growing and they have resorted to among other things kandolo. Ifipushi (pumpkin), Imyungu (gourd – Cucurbitaceae).
I want to think last time I was in Lusaka, going
through literally every part of our road, you can’t believe the amount of kandolo we sometimes take to waste. But I want to think that going forward, if we had industries, that could think about making biscuits out of kandolo…I want to think that going forward, we really need to be more innovative. We can get a lot of products out of kandolo like we do with cassava. If we think outside the box, we
can safely say ‘we have another product which does not require so much fertiliser like cassava but can be found at literally every point in our republic. As an advocate of kandolo myself I have never seen, if you want to call me kandolo I am very glad. Kandolo gives you a meal. Kandolo with peanut butter gives you a meal.”