President Hakainde Hichilema has tasked Agriculture researchers to step up efforts in developing drought resistant crops to help the country meet its agricultural needs.
The Head of State has explained that in view of the drought situation, Zambia must begin to look into research to breed crops that can withstand any climatic conditions.
President Hichilema has also called for breeding of crops that have high yield.
President Hichilema says his administration’s goal is to produce more products for both domestic consumption and export.
He says currently there is a global food deficit stating that Zambia should take advantage of that crisis by producing more so as to begin contributing to the global food basket needs by way of exports.
“Here is the message, there is a global food shortage, the global food basket is half empty or half full so we (Zambia) should be the ones targeting that so that we can make money”. The President said.
“My vision as President is to grow this economy to $100 billion and we can achieve that by increasing our exports”. President Hichilema said
President Hichilema says once that is achieved, it will bring about diversification from Copper, Cobalt and Manganese which have their own space on the global market.
The Head of State said this when he visited the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) in Chilanga district.
And Minister of Agriculture Mtolo Phiri, says President Hichilema has given him direct and specific instructions to the effect that no Zambian should die of hunger amidst the drought situation.
The Minister explains that in view of the Presidential directive, his ministry has reversed the procurement process where government was buying maize, from satellite depots to the main depots, but now the same maize is being taken back to the satellite depots so as to make the availability of the commodity to Zambians.
He says currently his ministry is on coarse servicing all the 84 districts that have been severely affected by the drought.
“This is why it is important for the Zambian farmers to sell their maize to the government because who is feeding the country now?” It is the government that sells your maize to government because it will look after you in times of need like the one we are experiencing currently (drought)” Mr. Mutolo said.
Meanwhile Minister of Community Development and Social Services Doreen Mwamba has announced that in view of the Climate Change situation, his ministry has moved from giving its beneficiaries under the food security pack only maize but has now included drought resistant crops such as Sorghum, Millet and Cowpeas.
“The President has given us policy direction and we as a ministry, we are moving in now to ensure that all our beneficiaries are helped with drought resistant crops so that we can fight hunger which could have come about as a result of drought”. Ms. Mwamba said.
And Zambia Agriculture Research Institute Executive Director, Nguni Dickson has explained that the centre is devising appropriate technology to mitigate the impact of climate change.
ZARI is a department under the Ministry of Agriculture and its primary mandate is to generate and adapt crop and soil technologies for the farming community with respect to addressing food security and diversification.
