Kembe Member of Parliament (MP) Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha has urged the electorate in his constituency to denounce political violence ahead of the 2011 polls.
And government has assured farmers in the area that government will buy all the crops in time.
Lt Gen. Shikapwasha , who is also Information and Broadcasting minister, said the the electorate in his constituency should be on high alert and report people perpetrating violence in the area.
” Violence if not rejected has the potential to retard the developmental project that government and people have initiated in the area, ” He said.
The Parliamentarian said government wants this year’s elections to be conducted in a free and fair atmosphere.
Lt. General Shikapwasha said this when he addressing a sizeable crowd that came to witness the Agriculture and commercial show at Kembe Farm Institute in Chibombo District yesterday.
The area MP said Kembe Constituency and the country, in general, has managed to record bumper harvest, a situation he attributed to the prevailing peace and good leadership of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
” Without peace there can never be any development in the country hence the need
to embrace peace and denounce people who perpetrate violence,” the parliamentarian said.
He for this reason cautioned the electorate in the area not to vote for violent political parties and their leaders but instead for the ruling MMD he said has has demonstrated that it can bring them development.
And Lt. Gen Shikapwasha has commended farmers in the area for taking advantage of government’s good agriculture policies to produce another bumper harvest.
He assured the farmers that government will buy all the crops in time.
He implored farmers to also venture into crop diversification as it was in line with government policy of insuring that food security and income at household level is sustained.
And Chibombo District Cooperative Union Chairperson Lloyd Kayeka commended government for assuring farmers in the area that it will buy all their Maize at recommended price.
Mr. Kayeka disclosed that some opposition political parties were going round in the district telling farmers that government will not buy the crop this year adding that some farmers were worried that they may lose out.
He has since called on farmers not to sell their crop to unscrupulous buyers who he said wanted to take advantage of the poor farmers and emphasized to farmers to wait for government to buy the maize at a good price.
He told farmers that the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has already put in place measures to start buying once the crop is ready and warned the public to be aware of the some people who will come to offer them cheap price for their crop.
The Agriculture show attracted small and medium scale farmers from around Kembe Constituency, commercial companies and agro companies who supply inputs, seeds
and chemical to farmers.
ZANIS
Yeah, but only if your careless mouth can be kept shut by you or some else.
William Banda has been warned….This is why violence has died off recently.
DID ALL THE MOULDY MAIZE GET PURCHASED FROM OUTER COLLECTION DEPOTS?….WHO PAYS FOR THE ROTTED MAIZE LEFT TO THIS DAY