Friday, March 29, 2024

I am bringing Chinese investors who want to produce rice, Sata tell westerner voters

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President Michael Sata
President Michael Sata

President Michael Sata has announced that Western Province’s wetlands have attracted Chinese investors who want to engage in full scale rice production.

The announcement was received with jubilation from residents that attended the President Sata’s public rally at Mitete Basic School, as it will steer development and create jobs in the Province.

“You have wetlands, I am bringing Chinese investors who want to produce rice and they will show you,” President Sata said.

President Sata also implored Patriotic Front (PF) members to work together and implement Government’s vision to improve the lives of poor people especially in rural areas.

President Sata said this yesterday in Lukulu in Western Province, where he held two rallies to drum up support for the PF candidate, Eileen Imbwae ahead of the Lukulu West by-elections on Tuesday next week.

The President also held private talks with the Litunga, Lubosi Imwiko II, at his palace in the newly created district of Limulunga.

President Sata addressed scores of residents in Mitete and Muyondonti areas, where he expressed concern over the low rate of development and poverty levels.

President Sata urged the people to vote for Ms Imbwae so that the Government could easily implement development in Lukulu.

“Let us work as a team and let us work for the poor people. I ask you people to vote for Ms Imbwae so that we can work together to bring development, we cannot sit and watch our children sleeping hungry and mothers are giving birth under trees and they are dying from pregnancy complications which should not be the case. This is 50 years after Independence,” Mr Sata said.

In order to better health delivery services, the Government would build eight health centres in Lukulu to ease the burden of seeking medical attention faced by the people.

President Sata, who made Ms Imbwae kneel before the crowds, said that every leader must work for the people.

“If you want to work with me, you have to work for the poor people. You will only be in Lusaka when Parliament is sitting but when it has closed, you have to be with the people. These people didn’t choose to be poor. If you don’t work for the people, we will not look after you and I’ll come back and ask the people to give me someone else,” he said.

The President said voting for an opposition Member of Parliament would only slow development.

Mr Sata who also paraded women Police officers while addressing a rally at Mitete Basic School, tasked Ms Imbwae when voted for to speed up the opening of a police station in the area to curb crime.

President Sata arrived in Mongu aboard a Zambia Air Force (ZAF) plane to an applauding welcome as scores of residents and party members gathered at the airstrip.

The President was met on arrival by Vice President Guy Scott who was also in Lukulu to drum up support for Ms Imbwae.

Others that accompanied the Head of State were Home Affairs Minister, Edgar Lungu, Commerce Trade and Industry Minister Emmanuel Chenda, Gender and Child Development Minister, Inonge Wina as well as Community Development Mother and Child Health Deputy Minister Jean Kapata.

The Lukulu West seat is also being contested by Misheck Mutelo for United Party for National Development and United Liberal Party’s Mubita Sikwa. The Lukulu West seat fell vacant after the Supreme Court nullified the seat following an election petition.

24 COMMENTS

  1. People of western province do not need a Chinese to teach them to grow rice. What they need is money for inputs and irrigation period. Chinese to show who? Pure CNP

  2. I am just trying to wrap my head aroung this one: ‘there was jubilation when this president told the people that he is going to bring in chinese people to come and grow rice in the province’…. really? Imagine the chinese president going to some rural chinese provincial town and proudly proclaiming to the people that he was going to bring in some zambian people to come and grow rice in that province. are zambians THAT lazy to the extent that they cannot grow rice? or maybe to ignorant to manage rice growing? somebody please explain for me

  3. Critics there u go again…50years since independence we have failed to produce in mass or at a large scale our beautiful rice. Sata brings in an investor, u critisise ninshi mufwaya? Real emploment and infrastructure will be built from such an investment schools,health centres and sports fascilities. Grow up in brains

  4. @6, Webman, What Sata was telling the people of Western Province is that they are too lazy and too ignorant to grow rice. Western Province is a rice growing area so what rice are the Chinese going to produce there? This is as laughable as bringing Boers to Southern Province to show Tongas how to grow maize.

  5. Lozis can and do grow their own Rice. They need the same support maize farmers
    are given by government. Lozis please reject this nonsense from PF. The Chinese won’t give that rice for free once they have grown it. Don’t give away your independence to grow your own food. Tell Sata to improve to introduce extension services for rice and cattle farmers in the province as these are none existent. Sata did not discuss rice growing in Barotseland when he was recently in China. So this is one of his usual lies.

  6. People must be supported to grow more rice. Where technical assistance is neeeded from the Chinise to increase the yield, let them come. We must diversify our diet. People can get a livelihood by producing good quality rice that can even be exported to other countries like Botswana. Rice is more nutritous tham maize and local must eat it not only during special occassions. The preseident needs support but his communication to the poor needs to be nurtured too. I think he means well though sounding rude.

  7. Get to the ground before making any pronouncements. Land disputes are the biggest problem among westerners. so whose land are going to allocate to the Chinese. You can only celebrate if you don’t come from the plains. I can guarantee, they won’t last a season.

    Not all the the land you see can be used for agriculture, so bwana president good luck on this one

  8. Bringing Chinese to employ Lozis to grow rice will not reduce their poverty significantly. Do you know that Chinese workers (unskilled) in china are underpaid? Even here in Zambia, those working for china man keep on complaining. What the Zambian needs is govt support to enable him/her grow more rice and govt support to find market. The farmer would make more growing rice on his own than working for someone. Usually it is better to work for yourself as you can make more. Therefore, govt should facilitate such. It is also ok to woo investors but do not forget the individual farmers. The two can exist side by side. I think the big question govt needs to answer is: What has it done for the existing rice farmers? If none, then does govt care about these farmers?

  9. Do you honesty need a Chinaman to come here to teach you how to grow rice? How are the much poor Indian peasants doing it on a commercial basis? Sata seems now to think the Chinese are god-sent…all the Chinese gov’t will do is get a handful of unemployed villager youth with an agricultural officer hand them a loan visa their development bank for machinery and send them to Zambia as investors where they will form a cooperative and they are in business.
    Gov’t should invest in local communities via mechanisation and encourage cooperatives it is working in Rwanda and Ghana …why not Zambia? In fact they more rice will produce the less will depend on the maize as a staple.
    Wake up!!

  10. Mongu Rice in our supermarkets is grown by local farmers. The government should help them with inputs. There’s no need to bring the Chinaman to grow Mongu Rice. Besides the Litunga himself is a Rice farmer!

  11. Exactly. There is no need to bring a Chinese man. They have been doing it for a long time and know how to produce it better that a foreigner! Empower the locals with tools so that they can produce the rice themselves….. Help them find markets to sell the rice.. This is what we mean when we say you people do not understand development!

  12. i surely fail to understand how some people analyse issues.I dont know wheather its arrogance or its just dullness.Look at the advantages and disadvantages of the exercise. To me there are more advantages compared to the disadvantages. Employment will be created and the local people will be motivated to grow more rice since there will be readly available market.

  13. At a large scale a lozi won’t be able to it,just like when it comes to maize.Let the china man react employment and will all benefit.He is not coming to show us how its done, we know that already.Moreover he will be using chemicals and you don’t ,which will result in your aroma rice to be very expensive.Do you know that himself(China man)avoids GMO foodstuff?You will benefit a lot!!!!!

  14. This is the “Dead Aid” Ms Moyo was talking about, our politicians have lost the ability to think; to them calling out to the Chinese is problem solved. Its skin cringing to say the least; here is a gov’t that is throwing hideous sums of money to build a useless stadium in Mongu. Is this not misplaced priorities? We have been here before with this political rhetoric from Sata especially just before a by-election. There are agricultural students graduating every year who are an unemployed and he rubs salt in the wound by calling on the unemployed Chinamen.
    Western and Luapula Provinces are idea for growing rice on a commercial basis not just for local consumption. It just needs organisation through co-operatives its never too late to start a mechanised revolution in agriculture.

  15. Why shouldn’t Zambia be a key player in rice cultivation and production in the region? There is high demand for Extra Long Grain Rice, Super Kernel Basmati Rice and D-98. In fact in restaurants and shopping chains in Europe basmati rice is the preferred choice as it is less starchy and easier to cook hence it is idea for international export. If the Pakistanis and Indians can do it why can’t we?
    This is why we were stating that if the gov’t invested those funds (mis)allocated to construction of the stadium to rice production and cashew nuts production the benefits to the economy as whole would have been massive. It is sad that the president only tours when there is a wasteful by-election looming!!

  16. You experts in criticism can you shut up and follow what the President is saying. Which rice are you talking about in Western province when the talk of food security is still the order of the day in Zambia and and the southern region. We have billions of people worldwide who needs to eat and you are saying western province grows alot of rice which i believe is on a small scale. Please grow up and learn to critise constructively. Look at the market grobally.

  17. For sure we have failed to produce and feed ourselves for 50 years now, but for this one I wish to appeal to our listening president to change his stance because our unemployment levels are too high to take away even the little means of livelihood people have been surviving on. Surely people have failed to produce because of lack of machinery, inputs & markets. Why not channel part of $50 million or all of it allocated to DBZ to uplift agriculture and it’s marketing infrastructure. Because this is exactly what the Chinse are going to do to their prisoners by giving them millions of dollars of loans & send them as farmers/investors. Let DBZ utilize this money wisely & fund only those Zambians with sound business plans and projects not salaula sellers. That is the good use of EUROBOND.

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