Zambia’s Ambassador to Italy, Frank Mutubila says the high levels of poverty in the country still remains a concern for the Zambian government.

Mr. Mutubila said despite a number of interventions by the government and other international organisations, poverty has continued being a huge challenge.

The Ambassador noted that poverty and the global rising food prices are a source of concern.

He was Ambassador Mutubila was speaking during a presentation of his credentials to the President of The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr Kanayo Nwanze in Rome, Italy.

Mr Mutubila also said climate change is being felt across the globe and Zambia was no exception as evidenced by the recurrent droughts and floods.

The ambassador stated that Zambia remains resolved to continue working with IFAD in trying to address the many challenges facing small scale farmers in the country especially women empowerment in project activities.

He explained that the government of Zambia places agriculture as a top priority not only in the provision of food production but also to provide the much needed employment.

Meanwhile, Dr Nwanze noted that climate change will affect food production and cause the escalation of food prices in the world.

Dr Nwanze has since called on countries to have strategic food reserves for their nationals in order to avoid hunger.

The president said government should be responsible for buying crop harvests from farmers instead of allowing business people to buy from farmers at give-away prices.

“In terms of post-harvest challenge, I am aware that most African countries lack storage facilities for farm produce and most countries with surplus grain such as Zambia have seen some produce go to waste”, said Dr Nwanze.

The president has urged countries to put measures in place to address this challenge adding that youths should take up and not view it as a dirty job.

Dr Nwanze also said that there is need to sensitise the young people to understand that farming is a big sector that can cushion employment problems.

He indicated that IFAD has a program for 2013 that will be focusing on improving rural financing for farmers in Africa.

ZANIS

Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) says Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card registration is not a political issue nor should it spark a debate among subscribers but rather be considered as a statutory requirement for security purposes.

ZICTA Public Relations Manager Ngabo Nankonde said there were misconceptions such as the alleged political strategy for Patriotic Front government on the current on-going SIM card registration.

Mrs Nankonde was speaking in a follow up SIM registration press briefing with journalists from various media houses in Kabwe yesterday.

She said journalists were a tool of communication that can help clear peoples’ doubts across the country to ensure that the exercise is understood and done by every mobile subscriber.

She said ZICTA draws its mandate from the Information Communications Technologies (ICT) Act No. 15 of 2009 and the Statutory Instrument on the Registration of Electronic Communications Apparatus No. 65 of 2011 to ensure that all the mobile phone service providers register the SIM cards of all their subscribers.

She said SIM card registration in Zambia is now a law that will enable law enforcement agencies create a database to help identify the mobile SIM card owners.

Mrs Nankonde further said the registration was essential in tracking criminals who use cell phones for illegal activities and also to curb other negative incidences such as loss of phone through theft, nuisance text messages, fraud, threats and inciting violence, among others.

She added that the registration is also meant to help the service providers know their customers better.

She said failure to register a SIM card is a breach of the law and jeopardises government efforts of stamping out incidences of crime perpetuated through mobile phone handsets and by extension, putting oneself at risk.

She explained that the personal information collected such as National Registration Card (NRC), valid passport, valid driver’s License or Voter’s card would be kept confidential by the respective mobile phone operators in a secure data base.

ZICTA is carrying out sensitization awareness on the on-going countrywide SIM card registration exercise through the media.

ZANIS

Government has resolved the mealie-meal crisis that had hit some parts of Copperbelt.

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Emmanuel Chenda who earlier held a closed door meeting with millers in Kitwe today told journalists that the two parties have resolved the problems that had led to the current short supply of mealie-meal on the market.

Mr Chenda said all the millers operating in the province had assured government that they will immediately normalize their mealie-meal production and supply on the local market.

He said the millers have assured government that the supply of the staple food will normalize by Tuesday next week.

He added that all the millers that attended the meeting have assured government that they have enough stocks of maize to satisfy the current mealie-meal demand on the copperbelt.

The millers that attended the meeting included Antelope Milling Company, Olympic Milling, Mpongwe and H.M Milling.

And Mr Chenda said government will not succumb to the arm –twisting tricks by millers aimed at coercing government to off-load on the market the maize stocks held by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

He said government will off- load the maize held by FRA at an appropriate time because the maize is being kept for strategic planning in an effort to ensure food security in the country.

The minister observed that it was unjustified for miller to claim that they had no maize for them to supply sufficient mealie-meal on the market when they also bought maize from farmers in the maize buying season which has just closed.

And the minister said government will ensure that the millers that want to export mealie-meal to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo first satisfy the local demand before they can export.

And representatives from all the four milling companies that attended the closed door meeting with the Minister of Agriculture also told journalists that they have enough stocks of maize to enable them produce enough mealie-meal to off-set the shortage.

Meanwhile Mr Chenda has announced that farmers from Lufwanyama and Kalulushi who have not been paid by FRA for the maize they supplied to the agency have today started getting their money following the meeting he had yesterday with the management of participating banks.

He said the logistical problems that had caused the delay in paying the farmers have been sorted out.

Yesterday Mr Chenda announced that government bought maize worth K99 billion from farmers on the Copperbelt and has so far released K100 billion for the payment of the farmers.

ZANIS

Government says it will next year introduce a new programme called e-voucher to replace the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) to eliminate corruption and help farmers diversify from maize production.

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Emmanuel Chenda said government has had some serious challenges with FISP and that’s why it was introducing the e-voucher system to deal with individual farmers.

Mr Chenda said the change in the provision of the service is meant to eliminate corruption because some cooperativeness had been hijacked by some people from the same family and government wanted to stop that.

This came to light when the Agriculture and livestock Minister came to inform farmers in the area that government has released K100 billion to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to pay farmers on the Copperbelt.

Mr Chenda said government had realized that there was too much corruption during the process because very few people managed to get the inputs when the program was for the poor farmers.

He said the biggest challenge that government was facing was the distribution of FISP in the districts when it was for the resource poor citizens so that they could grow food to alleviate poverty.

Mr Chenda said government thought of introducing the e-voucher system because most people that benefited from FISP through the cooperatives were mainly farmers from the same cooperatives instead of the resource poor citizens.

He said there would be no corruption in the e-voucher process because farmers would be registered one by one and that communication would only be between the agriculture ministry and the farmer himself and not through the cooperatives.

He said the system would be easy because the farmer would have to cash the e-vulture system with ago-dealers and thus promote employment to the youths.

Mr Chenda further said that more people in the country were going into farming, but very few benefited from FISP.

ZANIS