OFFICIAL STATEMENT
Tackling High Food Prices
Our agriculture sector remains one of the areas of greatest opportunity for us as a nation.
As the price of basic foods such as mealie meal, bread and fritters increase to the extent that we have many families living on just one meal a day, the discussion of how we can transform the sector by better supporting our farmers must take centre stage.
Reasons for the price increases start very early on in the process with the rising cost of inputs. For example, farmers are now paying over K300 per 50kg of fertiliser, compared to K150 just a few years ago, while livestock feed has also increased in price. Failure to invest in extension services, such as cheap and reliable veterinary care, means productivity levels are low, and the recent power sector crisis has increased cost for producers, particularly in the milling and dairy farming businesses.
Yet with vision and long-term planning we can not only end hunger within our borders, but also create thousands of jobs and revive our economy.
We will support farmers to grow more at a lower cost by supporting them with better access to markets, local and regional, and providing affordable loan financing facilities and reduced interest rates so they can acquire modern machinery and equipment to support value addition activities. In addition, investment in extension services and training programmes will help our farmers to compete across the region and protect them from cheaper imports elsewhere by making them more competitive.
With all the technological and communications advances of the 21st Century the avenues open to us for increasing the flow of important information to small-scale farmers have greatly increased and so we must renew our thinking about what is possible, as well as our attitudes towards agriculture more broadly.
As outputs grow and prices lower, the opportunities for value-addition and the export of value-added products from mealie meal to cereals, tomato paste and tinned fish, must be grasped. This is how we will deliver job opportunities and foreign exchange earnings that support a healthy economy. Through diversification we will protect and secure this future.
In the UPND we remain excited about the potential for agribusiness to play a major role in uplifting the prosperity of our nation, as well as for each farmer and their dependents. That is why we consider agriculture to be a top priority in our economic plan. It can be a powerful engine of growth for our economy and our development. The window of opportunity is there but we must grab hold of it quickly and decisively.
Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President
Zambia here is a president in making. vote for this HH not ba Lungu who is commanding soldiers prematurely to quell riots when police are available. We need a government of that look to the future not this man called Lungu. Awe sure twabwelapofye
ANYTHING NEW IN THIS ARTICLE? MAYBE MY EYES FAIL ME. I SEE NO SOLUTION BUT SAME OLD SAME TALK LIKE ANY OTHER POLITICIAN THAT HAS COME AND GONE. I JUST SEE “DIVERSIFICATION, MACHINERY/TECHNOLOGY, BETTER ACCESS TO MARKETS(ROADS/RAIL), CHEAP FARMING INPUTS AND CHEAP VET SERVICES, MAKE TOMATO PASTE AND TINNED FISH” ANYTHING ELSE?
Kikikikiki, yaba! What they are promising, PF has/is already implimenting. Vote PF bane.
PF has been in govt for close to 5yrs and what do they have show for it? Failed agric policy and Edgar’s solution is solar hammer mills! It has taken taken PF over a year to realise incandescent bulbs were a drain on power and needed to banned. Edgar had to wait for riots to act on ritual killings. Moody’s has downgraded our economy to junk and shamelessly PF cadres see nothing wrong
Zambia and Sub Saharan Africa at large is not in this deplorable state because developing a nation is rocket science. That is what those visionless, clueless and greedy leaders want you to believe. They want you to believe that developing a nation is very difficult and out of this world and should take 1000 years. It is simply political will and sacrifice that is required for the bigger good. But who would sacrifice if they come to statehouse from poverty? We have to choose our leaders carefully looking at background and track record of success.
Kikikiki HH want to come and reduce the price of flitters and produce tinned beef and tined beans.kikkiki. Awe mwandi ba HH bena Kuwayawayafye. He has even failed to understand the reason why the price of Fertilizer seemed to have increased is becuase fert is bought in dollars. since the Kwacha lost value just like most world currencies, the price in Zambian Kwacha went up but if you compare the price in dollars. There was no real increase at all.
Ask Mumkombwe,
Just producing tined beef and tined beans will creat 200 jobs and earn forex, what is funny or difficult about that???
All you want is road building from where you steal from.
Too shallow a statement….
Rubbish! This is Tonga way of talking? When did he help people? We reject to help you choose HH because he is Tonga. If he was MMD – we would have listened? We’re not voting for person who only qualifies to be on the ballot because he is Tonga. UPND’s about Tongas and nothing else. No way. Let him qualify through another party not one where you reject others based on their tribe. You hate ECL because he’s not Tonga. Next time we’re sending a Lozi to State House on another Party. Mukamona!
Sichopeti…..are you blind to see thats what the PF government addressing? What’s new from UPND? Diversifying into agriculture….unfortunately this is not an over night thing….We voting PF and ECL chabe.
speak for yourself..goat
indeed speak for yourself.
Nothing new here…! This is along term project and Lungu has already started it…! Viva Lungu
Swallow your pride, fold your tail and come to terms with escalating cost of living. What do you claim PF is doing on that? MMD was better off. Am sure that even on the day of voting, people will go to polls after sleeping on empty stomachs. You cant argue it, hunger in our tummies is the evidence.
Ati lungus long term project. We can’t wait for 2064 the emergency is now.
HH has told us his plan on the Agriculture sector. Can other political parties including PF give us their plans for Agricultural devt in Zambia so that we can compare.This should be easy for the ruling PF party. They should tell us what they have done for the Agricultural sector since 2011 and what they plan for the future if re-elected in August 2016. That is what we voters want to hear so that we can vote wisely for our future.
PF Already implementing. The stage of talking plans are over we want implementations, which are already started
PF already has a very powerfull agric policy. Check there manifesto. The extension services HH is talking about was killed by MMD but PF revived it and we have seen alot of improvement there. The Vetinary departments in all provinces have equally been revived. The PF gvt has built alot of dipping tanks in southern province. The PF has also build the biggest vet laboratory in the southern which HH and his cadres are against. PF started a cattled restocking program in nothern Prov. so what are u talikng about?
What you don’t understand is these are the same thing that countries with developed agriculture systems use. It is these very simple solutions that can make change if properly promoted and implemented.
Zambia needs think tanks who can turn things around but not the way am seeing and reading same promises we ve been getting almost every day
Ndeloleshafye
Nkulolavye nene
HH is a snake and the only way to stop it is by crashing its head and chop it off. How can he lie that he will end hunger? Even the Bible doesnt that they will not be hunger on earth, but that those who turn to God and seek His Face, surely He will answer them.
Our God will not give His glory to the Devil (HH) NEVER, and so let him know this reality. “Wide is the road that leads to destruction and death and narrow is the road that leads to eternity”. HH has painted everything about PF and President Lungu black, just how true can this be? I for one know and believe that the PF Government has done great works in this country in the five years they have been in power and its obviously true that the enemy would not like to see this, its that simple.
If HH and GBM who have time and again…
Mind the hunger in your tummy. Stop being in the habit of calling others devils. we are all created in the image of God. Mind you, Millie meal was cheaper under all Governments except the Government you are supporting. Am not gonna make the mistake again.
Most pictures have seen for those rioters, looks like the target was foodstuffs, mealie meal, relish, cooking oil, sugar, a sign that the prices for most Zambians food commodities are just way too high, HH knows that the first line of defence is affordable food on the table, shelter, clothing and jobs, jobs, jobs, the rest will just fall into place.
When you take care of all those things above, voila! Peace reigns and no need of sending battalions in shanties to restore order.
It seems this site is full of hyenas , who are full of insults dullness ,they can not read and grasp any meaning of some one who is imparting them good knowledge and ideas.Because of poverty they resort to looting mealie meal from the hard working and financial discipline foreigners.Lazy Pfools wake up and realize that this not the time for day dreaming with your jamason.Can any Hyena show us what our Jamason is planning for this country.The time when people were being killed Jamason was busy using the police to trailing the opposition.Now that things have gone out of hand he is abussing the soldiers.
It only in the kraal where they cannot understand simple plans like these above.Surely Your Jamason has nothing to tell us about what he intend to do for our country in future
Same old policies, nothing revolutionary
Better to get back to old policies if they can help wipe the hunger currently in our tummies. we dont need something complicated. just these simple old polities. check out your tummy and maybe fill it with water at least. lol
Better old policies than no policies dont u think?
Hh also offer solutions to former BP employees whom you owe money, if you can add some interest the better because am sure for the time you ve kept it where ever it is, interest is a must.why ignore when these people want their money they worked for.
HH could be right, but what i failed to understand in time like when Ritual killing are rampant, riots are all over, have not heard ay opposition bringing ideas to quech this problem, because this concern us all and to suggest something will make someone popular unlike finding soution to food solution while even in USA there are some poor people. Bible says “Poor will be there forever” so no one can tuckle this problem. In Jesus times he said “there be poverty in some places” you don’t know maybe Zambia is one of that place, what are you going to do? Unless you don’t believe in the bible. So Oppositions please bring ideas who to combat ritual killing and how to stop riot if police and Soldiers is not a solution,
What do you want the opposition to say or do about the riots? Are you implying that those in government do not have the thinking capacity to end the riots hence they need extra brains of the opposition? Those in government should learn to think hard and see things beyond their noses. You cannot put kaponyas in power and expect them to solve the country’s problems. Never. Zambia will continue to be a banana republic should the same selfish tribalists and largely clueless people continue to rule after August.
TONGAS ARE TOO SELFISH, HE CAN JUST DESTROY THE COUNTRY LIKE HE DID TO OUR BELOVED MINES, WHICH HAS LED TO THIS SUFFERING WE ARE GOING THROUGH. NOT YOUR HH, ANYWAY!
THESE ARE TEXT BOOK ASSUMPTIONS WHICH ARE DIFFERENT FROM REAL LIFE SITUATIONS . HE IS NOT GIVING ANY ANSWERS, ALL HE IS DOING IS LIVING IN THE WORLD OF WORDS AND NOT ACTION.
LET HIM BE PRACTICAL, BWANA.
from the comments above,seriously some people will hang themselves.my dear bloggers, in elections anything can happen.ask RB,ask malawi Joyce Banda.i am just an “in-between” aka “referee” but from the look of things,either HH or ECL both have good chances of winning.so relax before your veins explode to due high BP on the 12 of Aug.
HH has no ideas. I can not even see anything newsworthy about this!
kaili you have no brain.
THIS MAN ALSO IS FULL OF EMPTY WORDS. LITERALLY THERE IS NOTHING NEW APART FROM THE USUAL ‘MARY GO ROUND’ THEORIES.
YOUR CHEAP CHEATS WILL NOT HELP YOU AT ALL. BE REAL FOR ONCE . WE ARE FADE UP WITH YOUR CHEAP POLITICKING.
But how will HH give affordable inputs to Farmers in rural parts if the roads are impassable ? How is he going to get the produce to the markets if the lorries carrying the same are moving on bad roads?. Just how will he reduce the cost of production? Affordable loans are welcome , but in this free market economy , is he going to sign another SI instructing financial institutions to lower interest to 5% ? Just how is he going to do this?. That’s what interest us most. I believe 90% of Zambian maize is produced by small scale farmers and they are mostly in rural areas . And to get to these places , you need to have better roads , and investing in roads first can result into easier transportation of inputs and produce to and from the market. We need practical solutions and not rhetoric
The only thing HH knows is to fulfill his dream of becoming president and nothing to do with Zambians. How can a normal person who is aspiring to lead people talk about food at a time like this honestly. Even if you are a greedy and selfish leader but this is too much. I think I need to pray for this child of a D…** because it is too much of himself.
How were MMD doing it before?
The Economy of any Nation is dependent of good policies and the implementation of the policies, everything else shall position its self after the shocks caused by the implementation of good economic policy. whenever one is producing something the inputs up to consumption stage is vital in determining the cost of final product. l have noticed people or may l say we talk more and implementation is below expected levels. In that way even when there is an SI without implementation expect nothing at all.
Indeed they say pansaka tapabula fipuba… Instead of tokin sensible things icimuntu ati ”Tongas r selfish” grow up u foolish munganga…nd start reasoning…this not th tym 4 tribalism…bt solutions on how things shud be solved togetha wit yo empty stomach…DN don’t 4get to tell yo chakolwa tht we r kicking him out of state house cum August 11
If all the money which was taken can be returned the economy can pick up.
I thought being in opposition meant being useful and relevant but this type of politics leaves much to be desired. The other thing HH should know that ECL penetrated state house through the grace of God and not by mistake. He should know that he is fighting GOD and the people chosen and loved one so he should up his game than this childish type of politics.
THIS HH HE ALWAYS FAILS TO TELL US HOW MUCH 50KG BAG OF FERTILSER WILL COST IN HIS ONE MONTH IN GOVERNMENT. AND HE HAS FAILED TO US HOW 50KG BAG OF MAIZE WILL BE BOUGHT FROM THE FARMERS. SO TO ME IS JUST TALKING NONSE. THAT IS WHY HE IS GOING TO LOSE JUST IN FIRST ROUND.
Hh better you keep yo mouth shut before flies get into it…hopeless n blind leader…no substance at all
Nsala fye mwe bantu… … twasebana na zenophobia. ?.. what usually happens to most countries when the ecconomy goes bad is they change govt ….don’t blame the dollar… you don’t export! Your leaders have turned zambia into an ngo… all they see as development is donna fund …no policies… graduates are in the streets. Even all the roads and building development is just borrowed money!
Try another one! HH can try …am not a polical fanatic but njala che pa menso ya mu zambian ya chila