Minister of Information and Media Cornelius Mweetwa has assured that the country is food secure and appealed to the citizens to avoid panic buying of maize as the government will make available affordable grain through FRA.
Mr Mweetwa who is on a fact finding mission to ascertain the extent of drought and also check on the maize stock at Food Reserve Agency (FRA) shed said there is enough stock available to cover the drought period through to the next farming season.
He said Southern Province has more than 47 000 metric tons of maize at its Kalomo storage shed with Kalomo district alone having 19 000 metric tonnes.
The Minister, who is also government Chief Spokesperson, said after touring the FRA shed in Kalomo that the maize stock is enough to cover the drought period.
“The stock is sufficient as it will see us to the next season coupled with other measures that the government has put in place to ensure no one goes hungry in the country,”he explained.
He said citizens should ,therefore ,avoid panic buying of maize because the government will release affordable maize for people to buy.
” I appeal to the FRA to ensure it safeguards the harvest jealously. We can not afford to have a wastage like it was last year in Livingstone. It is from the stocks that we have that the government would want to build up on.” Mr Mweetwa said
Mr Mweetwa urged district administration to start sensitising the people on what the declaration of the drought as a national disaster means so that they fully understand and prepare.
The Minister has also advised councils to re-align their 2024 budgets and direct more resources to sinking of boreholes in communities to avert a possible water scarcity owing to the prevailing drought in most parts of the country.
Mr Mweetwa said there is a likelihood of water scarcity in most communities for both humans and animals and councils must direct funds from some projects towards the provision of water.
“As a way of sustaining the situation there is a need at community level for farmers to respond to drought through irrigation. Government will reinvert our actions and put in place adaptation measures, the minister said.
And the Provincial Agriculture Coordinator Max Choombe said 61 000 hectares of crop fields have been affected in the province, with 282 small scale farmers Namwala and Sinazongwe being the worst hit.
“We have a crisis.We expected a supper harvest but
It’s a cry everywhere there’s nothing to harvest as the crop suffered at the time of tasseling and all the pollen is gone, ” Dr Choombe said.
And Dundumwezi member of parliament Edgar Sing’ombe said FRA should increase the quantity of maize sold to the community and open up more sites for community sales which are close to the people.
Meanwhile, Kalomo District Commissioner, Joshua Sikaduli informed the minister that all the 39 agriculture camps were affected.
