overnment says the four milling plants that have been procured from China will be arriving in the country, soon.
Agriculture and livestock Minister Given Lubinda says government has received information that the milling plants have been loaded and will be arriving in the country in a month’s time.
Mr. Lubinda disclosed that when the mailing plants arrive in the country, cabinet will sit and decide the provinces that will benefit from the machinery.
The Minister said this to journalists at Kasama airport before leaving for Lusaka, today.
He has since expressed hope that Northern Province will benefit from the four milling companies which are meant to address the meal and food challenges in the province.
Mr. Lubinda said the Province is a large producer of maize hence the need to have a milling plant will enhance the production of the commodity.
He explains that the plant will encourage more people to go into farming as their maize will be processed in the Province.
In July President Edgar Lungu announced that Government in collaboration with the Government of China has procured four milling plants to address the mealie-meal and food challenges in in the prisons as well as to contribute to raising revenue for the institution.
Meanwhile, the Food Reserve Agency in Kasama is scheduled to deliver 20 thousand more empty grain bags of maize to Chibombo and RRU satellite Deports.
Acting Kasama District Commissioner Beauty Namukoko confirmed the development to ZANIS in Kasama today.
Ms. Namukoko revealed that her office received reports that the two deports had run out of the empty grain bags on Tuesday.
However the FRA has provided more bags to the satellite deports so that farmers can continue to sale their maize, she said.
The acting District Commissioner has since called on the farmers to remain calm as Government will buy all their farm produces.
Ms. Namukoko said Government is committed to empowering farmers by buying all their farm produces in the marketing season.
We thank God and we are expecting more good things by the grace of God.
We have 10 provinces so who gets what first? how will these milling machines be run? as cooperatives or what? Hope they are solar powered because they will seize first day they are put to operation, load shading
This is now shocking!! what can zambians do??,,, now you are importing chinese people to come ngaya mealie meal for you??? this is sickening uncle Lubinda
Excellent. These are electric powered plants, right boss?
Comment: Joking zambian govt,zamtel 2years after it was grabbed frm LapGreen is running on loss,monopoly policies have failed to work in this capitalist economy,thse plants shall be operated by pf cadres who are incompetency as a result it will be like the defunct national milling company, borrowing loans on behalf of state run parastatals who cant compete with private companies is a big mistake,zamtel shall rely on GRZ to payback the planned US$300million loan, revisit thse decisions you make on behalf of zed pipo
This is good news, ba UPND chabanyonga lelo
Good initiative but lack of focus. Cabinet seating & deciding when the machines arrive. I think that’s a daft way of doing things. They should hv done need based analysis by now & wen machinery arrives, it should go straight to the platform already created. That’s Y Africans don’t succeed. They plan at at the end or middle of a project.
Comment: That is our money we contributed towards Cooperative Bank as share capital now being used to get milling plants .Each cooperative member contributed K50.00 and Mbala membership raised K650,000.00 as share capital in 2011 .Its this amount plus interest purchasing the plant
The four solar propelled milling plants will be distributed as follows;Northern province,Luapula province,Muchinga province nd Eastern province.Logic in this distribution pattern;This is the first batch of these machines nd we ve to say thank you to voters in these mentioned provinces.Then,the next five batch will be distributed as follows;Central province,Northwestern province nd western province,Copperbelt nd Lusaka province.UPND will ve to source one for southern province as a way to appreciate them for their traditional support.
This a welcome move and can only be appreciated if the question I will pose are answered: Do we have the capacity to operate these milling plants let alone maintain them? Is this genuine move by government or the politicians have eyes on the 2016 election, as a short term plan to woo votes? I may sound cynic but these are issues we need to ponder on.
One of the solution would have, prior to importing, to take Zambian end users (not the PS, Minister or President) to China to learn and appreciate the technology so that in an event of a breakdown Zambians can quickly address it.
KIKIKIKI above wandepaula! Surely, batasha ico wamwene!