9,000 tonnes of white maize at the Food Reserve Agency ( FRA ) Mwenzo storage shade in Nakonde District in Muchinga Province, have gone to waste.
This came to light yesterday when Nakonde District Commissioner Marvelous Sikapizye made an impromptu spot check on the storage shed..
Speaking shortly after inspecting the storage sheds that 9, 000 tonnes out of 21,000 tonnes kept outside the storage sheds, Mr Sikapizye expressed concern at the development.
Accompanied by Nakonde Town Council Secretary Michael Katemwe, the District Commissioner learnt that because of inadequate tents at the shelter, a number of bags remained uncovered thereby being prone to wastage each time it rained.
Mr Sikapizye said that it is a drawback for government to lose such quantities of maize.
“Government has a lot of things to do in order to improve the welfare of the citizens. We are in a hurry to bring development to the people and will not be happy to see things like this happening, ” said Mr Sikapizye.
He has since advised the Agency to consider transporting the remaining maize to the national storage sheds.
Mr Sikapizye further cautioned FRA employees not to take advantage of the situation and start stealing the maize adding that those who will be found wanting, will be dealt with accordingly.
And Mwenzo FRA market assistant who declined to be named told the district commissioner that the reason why the bags of maize were kept outside the storage shade, was to allow moisture content to drop to the required standard because at purchase time it was above 12.5 percent moisture content.
“We had kept the maize outside the storage sheds so as to reduce the moisture content because at the time of purchase, moisture content was 12.5 percent and we need to bring it down to 12 percent, ” he said.
“Expressed concern” – yes but who is going to be SACKED???
Rubbish
DeJa Vu
Really rubbish ?
Are you joining the imposter ?
Every year there is huge wastage and theft
I mentioned this when it was said bumper harvest
What are we learning in this article? There is lack of visionary leadership. A strategic and visionary leader in this position should have prevented such wastage occurring. A visionary leader should have had proper plan and constant and on-going engagement as well as onsite visit, with farmers and whoever is in charge at Food Reserve Agency ( FRA ) Mwenzo storage shade in Nakonde District in Muchinga Province to avoid this. Questions such as: is there proper storage, how conducive is the storage, are maize grains packed in conducive packaging etc to seriously prevent such huge waste. To run a country requires leadership that is serious, diligent, setting priorities right, among others, and not frivolous. Many of our leaders lack the ability of being serious in their positions, otherwise…
In addition, the country is losing fiscus to develop the country, and citizens are losing food on their tables. What a disaster and shame. Whoever is in charge, please be a bigger person and resign with immediate effect – no excuses.
Mr. President, what is the way forward on the maize grain wastage. A conducive and sufficient storage infrastructure requires to be built. Capable resources required to be deployed and constant feedback should be provided to the nation.
All this requires mitigation measure in place to prevent maize grains from lying in storage for a lengthy period and go to waste. Have you perhaps considered including technology to track harvests withing Zambian so that there could be constant engagement among farmers, other African countries as well as further afield and businesses. We need leadership that think outside the box as we are living in advanced times.
That maize grain can be used in the production of opaque beer.
No grain should go to waste
FRA Director Chola Kafwabulula is busy stealing and sitting in the office. The guy has overstayed and failed the country. He is the one who made sure Competent agricultural professionals such asf Isaac Mumba, Edify Hamukale and Clement Kumalinga were hounded out of FRA for fear of competition to replace him. He has turned an important agricultural parastatal into a law firm and LAZ. people live in fear at FRA and get fired at will