GOVERNMENT has said the performance of the agricultural sector in Eastern Province during the 2007/08 farming season has been very good compared to other regions.
Cooperatives and Marketing Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Bernard Namachila, said during the 2007/08 farming season, the province produced 267, 596 metric tonnes of maize.
Mr. Namachila also said 21, 621 tonnes of sunflower and 20,014 tonnes of groundnuts were produced during the same period in the province respectively.
He was speaking when he officiated at the launch of the National Fertilizer Support Programme (NFSP) held at Crystal Springs hotel in Chipata yesterday.
Mr. Namachila attributed the bumper harvest to the good agricultural policy introduced by government coupled with timely distribution of inputs, good rainfall and hard work by farmers.
“I am proud to say that Eastern Province has recorded a bumper harvest in a number of crops like maize, groundnuts and sunflower to name but a few,” he said.
The Permanet Secretary said the province also produced 4, 277 tons of soyabeans, 60,512 tonnes of cotton and 169 tons of tobacco.
Mr. Namachila congratulated the farmers in the province and staff from the department of agriculture for working hard, adding that the production of the crops was not a mean achievement.
He called on them to continue working hard because government regarded Eastern Province as an important agricultural production region which contributed significantly to the national food basket.
The PS noted that all the logistics for the inputs distribution exercise under FSP were in place not only in Eastern Province but countrywide.
“I expect farmers to start collecting inputs soon after this workshop in all the districts. To my officers, your role is to implement the programme according to the laid down regulations and you should avoid unnecessary problems for yourselves and government,’’ he said.
ZANIS/ENDS/SM/EB
Very good But remember to be voting wisely
# 1 or am i not? ha ha ha nigafgf8bq8tcvf
Dont lie thank God for last seasons rains.
Amen! Viva good policies.
Is this the right time to talk about bumper harvests? Don’t you know that harvesting begins in June and you can tell there and then that the harvest is bumper or not. Actally by April, the harvest can be determined. You guys must be serous.
RB
That is why RB and MMD won. They feed all of us. When the belly is full then you shout insults only. Zambia cannot be run on insults but a proven performance
I smell a rat,this cant be.Am sure they got all the maize bought by FRA and took it to the east.NYAMA SOYA AT WORK. VIVA HH.
But why are we buy the meals at 63000 .
Why talk about hunger pa Zed if you are boosting about the good agriculture results in the Eastern Province?.
Eat your own food you’ve grown and stop complaining.This year we will have less or rains in the Eastern province.
We want cheap food in Zed.
Viva H H
And they did vote wisely.
THATS BECOZ OF RB…VIVA RB
Car same one tell me why the prize of mealie-meal has shot up to more than K60 000 just after voting for RB Don’t tell me that fuel has going up on the international market because it has been stable of later is this the kind of goverment we want more over power cuts have come back
You’re talking about bumper harvest while others are abandoning schools just because of hunger. What kind of a country is this kanshi?
Can some one tell me why the prize of mealie-meal has shot up to more than K60 000 just after voting for RB Don’t tell me that fuel has going up on the international market because it has been stable of later more over Zesco has continued with power cuts soon after RB winning how did the manage during campaigns
Hey Nyama soya listen attentively though you like sleeping. Do not supplant the LPM family tree only toend up watering and planting your own tree. Anyhow get down to work coz you seem to be lost but I hope you pick your fragments and come with workable solutions. No handouts coz they went with KK’s handkerchief. WANVELA? UNTWILE????
#14 Mundia ba mudala kaya mwe, kaya
It’s good, Eastern is well diversified compared to the rest of the country. It should be the whole country like that.
Mealie meal is at K72,000 now. Awe mwandi
well done fimbuya in Eastern P. hope its not another good story like the famous Winter maize harvest!!!!
###16 MUUZE AVESENSE BUT AT TIMES THEY ONLY LISTEN TO WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR GOOD POINT
Zambian gvt. never genuine it all tricks.When are you guys going to restore integrity to the nation.MMD created feeding camps for the poor rural during elections.
RB s policies are yielding results already whilest the bwato is being auctioned as scrap metal and the kuboko is injured seriously
Sometimes,facts will look like insults.Please,analyse every word and sentence!,Thats what we call ‘WISDOM’
PLEASE, WITH ALL RESPECT. THANK GOD FOR THE PROVISION. WITH GUD RESULTS ITS POLICIES.IF THERE IS DROUGHT ITS BAD GOD. HOW ABOUT CHOMA WHERE THERE IS HUNGER WHOSE POLICIES? GOD? YOU DIDNT TELL US. BEFORE GOD PROVES YOU WRONG IN THIS SEASON REPENT AND THANK HIM. AM GUESSING THAT THE THEN VICE PRESIDO GAVE MORE FARMING INPUTS IN EASTERN PROV DAN OTHERS. GOD BLESS ZAMBIA
We villagers are feeding the hungry town dwellers. The village is calling for any hard working person. I here in Kazungula, you will soon find out how much we are doing. Viva walking the talk. Abash laziness and whining.
Good to see the East has good news to offer the rest of Zambia in its own way.
Esterners have always been good farmers, the eastern province has consistently been producing good harvests for several decades. It is thanks to the people’s good habits of hardwork and self reliance. It is unlike people of Luapula who are generally lazy and are inclined to prostitution and theft.
Nothing much comes out of luapula province except annual cholera outbreaks and export of prostitutes and streetkids.
You see eastern province has produced a bumper harvest. This is because RB has afarm there.He grew maize. It is high time his mbuya Sata also found a piece of land in Mpika or Kasama and start growing maize. We need abumper harvest from Northern Province next year not boxing cadres in town.
Good news for eastern province but dont sell all that maize then you start complaining about hunger in january. Election campaigns are over so dont expect free mealie meal from RB until 2011. Good luck.
Why were they given mealie meal, sugar etc? they are greedy pipo. D
You dont refuse a gift thats why they got sugar and mealie meal and mind you it was not the whole province. RB gave sugar to those old women in Katetes vulamukoko
You will be shocked if you went to Luapula and Northern Provinces. No serious subsistence farming takes place there in spite the favourable climate conditions and good soils. You will travel miles and miles with scanty agriculture activity. The population is all in town to watch TV.
Ladies and gentlemen meeting you later. Goodbye
Earstern Province is a challenge to all Provinces. Southern Province people also work hard and if it wasn’t for the weather, we would be hearing the same from there.
Go Easterners! feed all those pf cadres in Lusaka who don’t even have backyard gardens; but are so quick to unleash insults. Mutukwana after mwakuta, I must say again, this is the very reason why we need that subsidized fataleza, so can grow more to feed those town dwellers.
Actually Ngandu Magande earlier this year on CNBCA talked about the bumper harvest so this is old news. Congratulations to all who had a part in it and now perhaps instead of criticising and insulting each other we can find ways of ensuring that the price is fair to those who consume mealie meal. How many milling companies are owned by Zambians, what is the wholesale price and why has the retail price shot up? Does anyone have a reasonable and true answer. Wake up Zambia governement does not control things just like in any other country it is the private sector that controls your lives
Nothing to smile about bloggers, this is old news. And moreover the said maize was sold to Malawans at 75pin by June 2008.
Ba LT employ good editors.
imwe mwebantu babulamano stop talking rubbish and start tilling the land it’s the only way food will be cheaper but as long as places like Chinsali are not producing anything rain or no rain a lot of zambians are so lazy.Just look at how much food Tanzanians grow and i can asure you no tanzanian will complain about food and mind you food is not only nshima .Mulelyako nafimbi ngamulefwayo bwali mulelima.Not ukutemwafye ukusheta mulimugaiwa.
Now let us move forward. Abash Rigging and feed all Zambians.
Forcus on ” Zambia Vision 2030”. Agriculture drive the rural poor 80% affected Zambians living in poverty housholds out of poverty.
“We need similar ideologies. Patriotic Front (PF) President Michael Sata says political parties should only merge if they hold similar political ideologies. Mr. Sata says there is no need for political parties that do not have a similar agenda to come together. He was responding to a question on the need for the opposition parties to merge in a bid to oust the ruling MMD from government. This was during a press briefing in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, Friday. Mr. Sata questioned the credibility of the Zambian electoral system under the current legislation. He also reiterated his party’s plans to petition President Rupiah Banda’s election.” Source: w w w . z n b c . c o . z m. Why ask UPND?
#28 GOLYATI & #29.Anonymous, Please bauzeni amvesese!
#5 Hunter
Check that it is 2007/2008.
Sowing in November 2007 and harvesting in June 2008.
You will fail your exams if you do not read properly.
What we need to do, is invest in water harvesting, so we can go from 3% of arable land being under permanent irrigation and 97% of arable land being rainfed, to having year-around harvests.
Go to Youtube and search: Permaculture Water Harvesting
This is what we have to do – collect rainfall and store it in the soil (no malaria risk, no evaporation), so it can feed ponds and dams on a permanent basis.
Digging swales and ponds will secure the food supply and put a huge dent in mass unemployment.
#41Maestro Hhehhehhehhe We are discussing agricuture here and not Mr Sata or UPND.Its contribute positevely regardless of party affiliation.Elections are over and the bwato is in the garaGE WHILE the hand kuboko is in attending being attended by some doctors.Maestro Hhehhehhehhe i know you have ideas on how we can become food basket of Africa and this is the topic
I can explain why the price of mealie meal has gone up and yet we are experiencing bumper harvests. Mind you next year it will even be a bigger one.
1. The FRA had increased the floor price of maize to (I think) K55,000 if I am not mistaken. What this meant is that you can go into farming and stand to make huge profits. And so a lot of people decided to go into farming due to the high price and the profits they stand to make. And with this Fertilizer aid thing, we stand to see more bumper harvests because some of the inputs (fertilizer) has been made cheaper.
[tbc
cont from #46]
2. However, this increase in price meant increase in the operating costs of millers. The price of the main input (maize) has gone up and this has resulted in higher costs of doing business. The only solution was to either downsize (fire workers), buy new technology that will make it cheaper to mill the maize or the fast short run solution of hike the price up. That is why we are experiencing high mealie meal prices.
Solution: Subsidize the price of maize. Let the FRA buy the maize at the high price and sell to millers at a lower price. This will ensure that farming increases and mealie meal prices drop.
It is clearly because they voted for RB.
I dont think the statement was being made with geniune intention its about justifying why MMD won in eastern province.This is not the time they should be talking about bumper harvests.In the recent past Zambia has been producing bumper harvests, let us not forget some of our brother farmers who came from Zimbabwe(the one’s Mugabe had chased) they have settled in that region too.And of course differnt parts of the country too.They were suppose to make that statement early this year.With Agriculture honestly LPM worked so hard he contributed to it.Why didnt they also mention all the other provinces as well mentioning what each one what they produced?
What bumper harvest? what is RB doing about it? eating everything FEEDING HIS FACE? what about children who are starving in Choma? LET THEM DIE SINCE THEY VOTED HH-SAYS RB! How come bumper harvest exists in one particular region in the entire Zambia? because RB’s farm and those of RB’s village brothers/riggers are in the Eastern Province!
RB distribute food and feed the villagers who voted for you, my family voted for you in CHOMA with REGRET. PF YOU HAVE MY VOTE FOR 2011.VIVA PF!
dont count chicks before eggs are hatched,how can u have pumper harvest before fertilizers is distributed come on easteners are u day dreaming of the pumber harvest like RB who like sleeping ,
yes, guys the End of food shortage. Bumper harvest in November. Really climate change!!!
This is an object lesson for those good for nothing PF cadres who believed Sata was going to put more money in their pockets for doing nothing except shouting at the top of their sqeaky chibuku voices about pabwato. Thats why rural people even in Lusaka and copperbelt provinces voted for RB. Because they know that money in the pocket can only come through hard work. You urban dwellers are nothing but lazy bones who thrive on cheating, stealing and reaping where you did not sow. You are nothing but ticks sucking on the blood of the rural masses. Bloody empty tins making the loudest noise. Viva Zambia rural, Viva MMD. Abash PF and their komboni mentality!