THE Socialist Party has argued that President Edgar Lungu’s initiative to set up 13 milling plants in parts of the country will not reduce hunger in Zambia.
Socialist Party general secretary Dr Cosmas Musumali says the plants to be set up under the presidential milling initiative were not a solution to the hunger experienced by millions of Zambians.
He argues that the milling plants were going to be a cash-cow for funding PF activities and supplying mealie-meal to would-be voters during elections.
Dr Musumali appealed to the President and his government to realise that “some level of honesty is not harmful.”
On April 17, President Lungu said there was no reason for mealie-meal prices to remain high when maize was locally produced.
He claimed that the PF government would not shift from its pro-poor policies as that was the mandate upon which “we were put into power by the Zambian people.”
The President made the remarks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of milling plants under the presidential milling plants initiative at the University of Zambia Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre in Chongwe.
The milling plants, according to President Lungu, were earmarked for construction in Kaoma (Western Province), Monze and Mazabuka (Southern Province), Chipata (Eastern Province), Mpika (Muchinga Province) and Solwezi (North-Western Province).
Others are to be situated in Mumbwa and Kapiri Mposhi (Central Province), Luanshya and Kalulushi (Copperbelt Province), Mansa (Luapula Province), Chongwe (Lusaka Province) and Kasama (Northern Province).
But Dr Musumali, an economist, believes that the project, “like many others before it” is ill-informed.
“It will not lower maize-meal prices, create significant jobs or contribute towards any meaningful industrialisation of the rural areas. Worse still, it is nowhere nearer to a solution that would address the widespread hunger and malnutrition in Zambia,” Dr Musumali said in a statement availed to The Mast.
“To start with, processing is not the major cost driver. Neither is it a significant explanation for the current escalation of the maize meal prices. The major culprits are the extremely low levels of peasant farmer productivity and high input costs. This is true even when seasonal and annual variations in maize supply are taken into consideration.”
He observed that an unpredictable rainfall pattern, decreasing soil fertility and high incidence of pest attacks on the crop had also increasingly turned maize production into a high risk venture.
Dr Musumali noted that several factors had turned maize and mealie-meal into a speculative commodity.
“The government is not without fault! It comes up with a cost-plus based purchasing price for the commodity that defies both economic logic and the diverse agro-ecological production realities,” Dr Musumali said.
“Private traders rush in to buy early at lower-than production cost prices before the peak harvest season. The millers are also not left out in this capitalist game of profit maximisation.”
Dr Musumali indicated that setting up 13 milling plants and hoping to see lower consumer prices as a result was a huge miscalculation.
He stressed that the milling plants would not increase peasant farmer productivity, reduce the cost of production, reduce the speculative dimension or significantly address the issue of access to the commodity for the poor and jobless.
“Most poor Zambians in rural areas use small scale hammer mills within a five kilometre radius of their homes. The average amounts milled at a time are small, 15-20kg. The PF government’s project is not building on this extensive network and structure. Rather, it is replicating the existing medium and large scale capitalist milling facilities that supply mealie-meal to wholesalers and retail outlets. Direct interface with the final consumer is not guaranteed,” Dr Musumali explained.
“Suggesting to the consumers in, for example, Sikongo, Mitete, Shang’ombo and many other parts of Western Province that a single milling plant in Kaoma would lower down their mealie-meal price would be treated as some impolite joke.”
Dr Musumali further pointed out that the presidential milling plants initiative did not bring Zambians closer to the diversification of their food supply.
“The mono-culture of maize is, in terms of soil fertility and resilience against climate change, a disaster. Its negative impact is being felt more and more overtime. The heavy attention towards maize is inappropriate. Each year we continue to lose millions of kwacha worth of rice, sorghum, millet, groundnuts, beans, cassava, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, fruits and diverse vegetables that go to waste for lack of processing, storage or marketing facilities,” Dr Musumali said.
“A good number of these crops could offer a more nutritious and stable diet for the masses with appropriate investments in research and marketing. They also make economic sense under the context of climate change. The domestic, regional, international market for cassava alone in its raw, semi-processed and industrial usage could compete with copper exports at current global prices! The one-sided investments in maize are irrational.”
He recalled that euphoria and media hype around the presidential milling plants project was highly reminiscent of the mobile clinics that were launched with “a lot of fanfare by the MMD government of president Rupiah Banda.”
“[But] where are those mobile clinics today? What did they achieve? Or more recently the solar milling plants that involved the Zambia Cooperative Federation: They were meant to bring down the price of maize-meal! Like with all bad and doubtful projects, the packaging and branding is excessive. It is meant to cover up the fault lines,” Dr Musumali noted.
“The government-controlled media and the technocrats writing the speeches were at pains to draft sensible rationale and outcomes of the presidential milling initiative. The harder they tried, the more pathetic the propaganda turned out to be. It is not an enviable task at all; some level of honesty is not harmful!”
Meanwhile, Dr Musumali noted that the PF government wanted to have control over a commodity that was dear to the Zambian stomachs – mealie-meal.
“What is the best option for doing it if not to run these through their trusted cadres, now strategically placed in the various government agencies? The ZNS of today, just like the police, is comfortably infested with PF cadres!” said Dr Musumali.
“The milling plants are going to be a cash-cow for funding PF activities and supplying mealie-meal to would-be voters during election times. That is the naked truth about these milling plants!”
Mmm you wonder when anything will mean something else to some people. Millers have cartels just like other interest groups and that’s why KK repossessed all milling companies. Mealie meal is hot issue in Zambia. It can be used to break a political opponent whether in opposition or ruling party.
There is NO hunger for heavens sake.
Like all of you I trust president Lungu.
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Zambia is the largest producer of maize in the and supplies to many countries. The same commodity is sold at much lower prices than ours. I dont believe it has to do with the costs of input and production but partly processing and the mafias driving the business. Other reasons are costs of electricity and fuel however we have seen a situation were millers dont reduce the price when fuel is reduced. Just sort out tge mafias and the price will drop.
Upnd in their ten point plan says they will increase the floor price for the bag of maize so that the farmer is happy. Now tell me how the price of mealie meal will be sold at K25 when if the raw material was bought at k200.
UPND said they like those millings and they will keep them after PF leaves in 2021.
Mushota, sitting in Scotland does not show you hunger in Zambia. If there were free and fair elections today, LUNGU will not get votes of his uncles and aunts who are starving and dying like pests in Eastern Province. Lungu is a curse on Zambia
Wina is going to die within weeks and next will be humiliated Lungu booted out, then put behind bars for economic sabotage, looting the treasury and crime against humanity. Next president will hand him over to the Hague.
As is usual with projects initiated by political leaders,political considerations were more important in setting up these milling companies than economic realities. The PF are very desperate to win in 2021 and as this draws near we are bound to see more of this desperation.But PF have messed up the national economy so much through corruption that it is too late for ECL to say the PF are “pro-poor”. The suffering of Zambians now cannot be solved by mere setting up of 11 milling plants.It requires divine internvention that is only provided alongside deserved political punishment. You can dribble your nationals politically for a while but unfortunately you can not dribble in economic management of a country.
As is usual with projects initiated by political leaders,political considerations were more important in setting up these milling companies than economic realities. The PF are very desperate to win in 2021 and as this draws near we are bound to see more of this desperation.But PF have messed up the national economy so much through corruption that it is too late for ECL to say the PF are “pro-poor”. The suffering of Zambians now cannot be solved by mere setting up of 11 milling plants.It requires divine intervention that is only provided alongside deserved political punishment. You can dribble your nationals politically for a while but unfortunately you can not dribble in economic management of a country.
I agree with you Dr Musumali. You forgot to ask whether these milling plants were budgeted for. Or additional loans until Moody’s rating agency tells us that Zambia’s debt has reached 95% of our GDP. Also the Presidential funding initiatives (marketeers, youth, solar mills etc) must be huge if expensive projects like milling plants can just drop from heaven like manna!
The way I see it, the cost of preparations for the 2021 election, or is it re-election, will kill this economy, and with it the chances of re-election.
CAUTIONARY NOTE
Don’t get me wrong, you are not worth voting for Dr Musumali and your Mmembe or any trib.al for that matter. No trib.al presents a viable option for 2021.
I can see you have seen the light in regards to Lungu and pf , you have shifted your position , not enough…….just wait for the next few years when the pf looting takes effect and you ditch your tribalism and will be begging for HH……
I agree with your first paragraph but on second paragraph, UPND is the stinking tribalist party. Socialists are never tribalists. Their ideology is ‘Class centered” and not tribe centered
Those old enough will know what we call Chembapot (Chamber pot). Because it’s used for toilet matters, no matter whether you’ve just bought it, you can not use it for cooking food. That’s what socialism is.
Lungu is a contaminated commodity, no matter what he does, it will always be viewed with suspicion. No matter how Nobel the effort.
A situation all to his own making. It all started with him , by remaining silent, accepting that he is a corrupt thief when he is being accused of being a very corrupt thieving president……
Lungu is a contaminated commodity, no matter what he does, it will always be viewed with suspicion. No matter how Nobel the effort.
A situation all to his own making. It all started with him , by remaining silent, accepting that he is a corrupt thief when he is being accused of being a very corrupt thieving president……
As the saying goes, shout loud and long enough, people will listen…
In most people’s eyes he has zero integrity.
sir every one is a cash cow in Zambia. Police have turned speed traps and traffic offences as cash cows.Business enterprises are being turned into cash cows by cadres.Fuel that we buy is a cash cow for the ruling elite.In our own land we have all been turned into cash cows.
You forget the saying ” Better something than Nothing ” .
I started hearing of solar milling mills when ecl just took over govt. Up to now still talking about them. Lazy for sure as JJ puts it
Simply ask them to give the figures for money raised from those 2000 Solar Hammer Mills imported from China….If I was in opposition I would publicly write to State House cc. Ministry Of Finance for how much was spent and how much money has gone towards repaying them …you can not be talking about Milling Plants when you have not given us a review of Solar Milling Plants..where is the money going to for those? Opposition need to up their game they should send undercover investigators to see how these things are doing.
Adding more plants does not necessarily reduce the price if monopolistic tendencies remain in supply of maize inputs, marketing, storage and transportation. The solar milling plants just increase these tendencies through preferential treatment in obtaining maize. Since they will mill less than 1% of mealie-meal, the tendency will be apamwamba to pass off their product dubiously at the dominantly produced high price from 99% of plants.
The only sensible way to reduce cost of mealie-meal is ramping up the community hammer mill. Grow your maize or buy raw and take to your neighbour to gaya. Keep your gaga and masewa as well.
Most of the programs which PF government choose to introduce or implement is failing or back firing or negative results.
1.The foreign trips to woo investors ,managed only one the Chinese contractors .The Europeans,Americans or Indians .I mean big investors not like the ones running Speed Cameras
2.Agriculture failures; starting from the supply of farming inputs,pricing system,delayed payments to farmers or general marketing administration.
3.Am human and able to make a wrong analysis; Mrs Wina is the only one who has clean hands the rest is “Everyone for himself but God for us all”.
4.Offering jobs in Ministries,Govt agencies,parastatals and all defence and security agencies to cadres,supporters and sympathizers; these lucky ones are all involved financial scandals and also incompetent or lazy.
5.The main agenda of PF government is weaken opposition UPND and HH with the purpose of winning 2021 election ignoring the current economic hardship at handy.
6.Chinese loans which were obtained without negotiation,consultation and conditions. The money was easily stolen now the Chinese government have introduced conditions of providing proof of financial discipline from the previous loans .So far Kenya cannot complete a overhead bridge because they have run out cash and China have refused to refinance. So the road construction or infrastructural developing is milking…
6.So the road construction or infrastructural developing is milking Chinese billions because of part of it, is been pocketed.
7.The maize stock which the PF administration informed the nation that it is enough upto next farming seasons now they have supply maize or meal mealie the rural areas for free and also the urban areas at higher price.
Chap’s speaking at cross purpose. No one intended the mills to stop hunger! It ‘facilitates,’ farmers to have a finished product. It’s the maize meal that will prevent hunger if adequate is produced to meet demand.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE SOLAR MILLING PLANTS ?????????????? HAS THIS BEEN A SUCCESS ??? I DONT THINK IT HAS SO STOP TALKING ABOUT MILLING PLANTS WHICH WILL BE SET UP BY THE CHINESE AND MILKED DRY BY THEM AND THEIR CADRES. THE CRISIS WE AR NOW IN HAS BEEN CAUSED BY THOSE THAT RULE US ========== MAIZE WAS EXPORTED TO NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES WITHOUT FIRST TAKING STOCK OF WHAT MAIZE ACTUALLY SURVIVED THE HUGE DROUGHT !!!!!!!!!!