President Rupiah Banda has hailed farmers throughout the country for their tireless efforts they have exhibited in the agriculture sector.

And President Banda has officially launched the 2011/202 farming season calling for farmers in the country to continue their preparations for another bumper in the 2011/2012 season.

And the Zambia Farmers Union ( ZNFU ) President Jarves Zimba says President Banda should be commended for his strides in improving the agriculture sector in the country.

Mr. Banda said farmers across the country should be commended for ensuring that the country has produced two successive bumper harvests.

“ In the past three years, farmers in this country have managed to produce surplus in our stable crop maize and other major agriculture products much to the delight of farmers in the country, “ he said.

ZANIS reports the President saying this when he officially opened the 106th Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) Annual Congress at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka today under the theme : ” Diversification and Market Development. “

Mr Banda said the country now enjoys food stability adding that it is now time for the country and farmers to start diversifying away from maize to grow other viable crops such as rice, beef, Sugar, beans and many other profitable crops for the benefit of the country.

President Banda has also hinted that the successive bumper harvest in the country has been possible due to the peace the country has continued to enjoy for some time now.

“ Without peace in the country, it would have been impossible for the country to produce enough food because the absence of peace, no progressive economic benefits can be achieved in the nation, “Mr Banda said.

Zambia has managed to increase the agriculture productivity from 1.5 million Metric Tonnes of maize per hectare to 2.2 Metric Tonnes per hectare.

Government has managed to increase the input support programme from 120, 000 to 900,00 Small Scale Farmers adding that Government has made sure that these farmer inputs are delivered to farmers across the country on time.

“ During the past farming season, Government managed to buy over 1.3 Million Metric tonnes of maize valued at K 1.69 Trillion,” the President said.

And speaking at the function, ZNFU President Zimba, who has been re-elected to his position said President Banda should be commended for his strides in improving the agriculture sector in the country.

Mr Zimba said this year’s theme is in line with government’s plans of diversifying the economy of this country for sustainable economic development in the country.

“ Depending on maize alone may not be sustainable in future in the sense that weather in the country and world over can change at any time thereby affecting the crop causing hunger in the country, “ he said.

Mr Zimba said Mr Banda’s Government should be commended and supported by all farmers across the country if the bumper harvest is to continue to be produced in the country.

He said Government alone cannot manage and needs to work hand in hand with farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector across the country.

Meanwhile, World Bank Country Director for Zambia and Zimbabwe Kie Kie said Zambia has managed to produce enough for the country because the country has been living in peace for some years now.

Ms Kie thanked the Government of the republic of Zambia for their dedicated efforts in producing enough food for its people and urged the country to continue working hard for the benefit of the farmers in the country

She said foreign direct investment and played a major role in the reduction of inflation in this country, a thing which he said has helped to improve the economy of this country.

ZANIS

By Gerald Nkisu Katayi

Communication Methods used by lovers have dramatically changed in the last few years. Nowadays lovebirds use the internet, cell phones and other devices. Their romantic dinners are crazily followed by drinking and clubbing.
In those days, you had to pull the middle pages of your “excise book,” sketch some flowers, painting them with crayons, adding inscriptions, “love potion.” All this is happening during class time, probably in grade five. Wearing khaki shorts; seating on hard desk and the feet resting on bare floor. Armed with a pencil and a rubber, pulling back mucus from time to time and then you start a letter to your lover.

Dearest darling, (then you add, “mistakes are yours to control.”)
How are you at this time in moment, back to me I’m fine.
I love you like a cup of tea
I don’t sleep but I dream about you
I can cross the ocean for you
You are my toffee sweets
You are my sweat banana
I miss you like water in the desert.
The letter is concluded by; write to me back and reply. After writing many letters, you had to “breaking the news” to your parents that your exercise book is “finished.” All your reply letters were kept under the “pillow” whatever it was made of.
Them good old days. Wish the clock would turn back.

BALLOT papers for the September 20 tripartite elections will arrive in the country on September 13, Electoral Commission of Zambia(ECZ) chairperson Ireen Mambilima has said.

Justice Mambilima said the consignment would be loaded on a cargo flight on Monday, September 12 in readiness for a direct flight to Lusaka the following day.

Speaking during the briefing for political party representatives, observers and Journalists at the Uniprint Boardroom, Justice Mambilima said Universal Print Group (UPG) had confirmed the flight schedule for the consignment of ballot papers.

“The contractor has confirmed that the consignment will be loaded on the cargo plane a day before so that all security formalities can be done before finally airlifting the ballot papers to Lusaka. This slight delay has been caused by the change from their usual Johannesburg route to flying directly to Lusaka but for us really it will still be on schedule,” she said.

Justice Mambilima who has been in Durban since Sunday for an on the spot check of the printing of the ballot papers, however, said the time for the flight would only be made known by the printer.

She said ECZ would immediately communicate with all political parties to receive the consignment at Lusaka International Airport. She was confident that the electoral body would be on schedule.

“We are very sure we will be on schedule and the ballot papers will reach all the areas on time because this work is on-going and immediately we receive the ballot papers in Lusaka, it will be non-stop,” she said.

She also urged the observers and all stakeholders involved here to ensure they worked overnight for the remaining few days to ensure the printing of the remaining ballot papers for local government candidates were completed on time.

“It is a huge task but we have to do it. I have spoken to the people here to allow you people work even overnight so that hopefully even in the next two to three days, work can finish so that we continue with proofreading and just other corrections,” she said.

Justice Mambilima also commended the stakeholders here for being part of the electoral process on behalf of the 13 million Zambians.

Printing of ballot papers for presidential and parliamentary candidates have since been completed. On Wednesday, Justice Mambilima ballot papers for local government candidates for Luapula and Central Provinces had been completed.

While in Durban Justice Mambilima inspected the printing of ballots for local government candidates and witnessed the proofreading being done by the representatives of the various political parties taking part in this year’s elections.
[Times of Zambia]

By M Kapumpe:-

How do you win the Presidential election, an election you have already lost three times previously? That is the question that Michael Sata has been contemplating in anticipation of the 2011 election.

Initially, his plan was to enter into a coalition with the third largest party in the country, the UNDP. However, when the leader of the UNDP, HH realised that there wasn’t going to be an open selection for the coalition’s Presidential candidate and that the whole purpose of the coalition was to advance Michael Sata’s Presidential aspirations, that strategy failed.

Sata then began to look for an alternative tactic to help him win in 2011. He was becoming more desperate as the months passed, because it was becoming clearer and clearer that the incumbent President and Sata’s main opposition, Rupiah Banda, was enjoying the economic benefit of high copper prices and that Rupiah Banda had not squandered this boost, but had reinvested the money back into new roads, schools and hospitals.

Sata also faced the difficulty of raising money for his campaign (oops, am I not supposed to mention money for fear of a lawsuit?), the pro-business environment created by President Banda had made businessmen reluctant to support Michael Sata’s campaign. It is even rumoured that one businessman has left the country until after the election in order to avoid meeting the aspiring candidate.

Considering the potential of a very difficult election campaign in 2011, Sata began to look around for a strategy. He ended up taking a leaf out of two recent campaigns on the continent, the 2007 Kenyan campaign and the 2008 Zimbabwe campaign. This is a strategy that Michael Sata partially employed in 2008, but now he has decided to put all his hopes in its use.

The strategy was to begin early on to challenge the validity of the election process. Every ambassador or foreign dignitary that he met, he continually stressed his fear that the MMD were going to falsify the results. As Mr Sata is well known for shouting things louder than anyone else, his continued drumming of this issue had begun to bear fruit. His intention all along was to focus this strategy on the international crowd.

A cursory sample of the feelings of most the embassies around Lusaka today, it is clear they have begun to give credence to Mr Sata’s claims. An example of this concern is that of the US embassy, that although they are unable to give substantive reasons as to why they think the election process is susceptible to fraud, they went so far to request that one of the US democratisation institutes, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) conduct a full fledge election observation in the country.

Mr Sata also has chosen to challenge every conceivable procedure, both in the judicial courts and the court of public opinion, no matter how trivial or unwinnable. His intention was not to win these cases through the courts, but again to cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process in the Zambia. This was also the purpose of cast doubt on the South African printers UPG, whom coincidently Mr Sata had no problem with in his last three election losses.

By building up this perception that the process is flawed, Mr Sata will be able to institute the next phase of his plan. There is an anomaly in the demographics and way the Zambian people vote that will allow him to no doubt take an early lead in the vote tally the night of the election. Mr Sata’s vote tends to be based in the urban centres of the country and those are the areas that tend to report their results first.

The MMD vote on the contrary tends to be more rurally based. Once Mr Sata’s early lead will begin to disappear, he will begin to cry foul in the media. He will bring his thugs onto the street to cause mayhem and having convinced the internationals that the election process is fraudulent he will demand mediation.

Like the elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe, he will hope to achieve “an African Solution to an African problem”, which means that a former African leader like Kofi Annan, who’s famous line we have quoted, will be brought in to set aside the true election results and force a deal on the Zambian people and bring Mr Sata into power.

There is only one way to defeat a strategy like Mr Sata’s, which is for the people of Zambia to come out in large numbers to give several definitive messages. First the message is that they and they alone will choose the future of their country at the ballot box and not careerist politicians that are interested in looking after their own and their friend’s interest and not the interest of the Zambian people.

And secondly, is to choose a candidate that believes in the democratic process, that recognises that their responsibility is to serve the interest of the Zambian people and not just themselves and those around them. If the Zambian people do that, they will not find themselves saddled with a president not of their choosing.