Vice President George Kunda says government will continue with its macroeconomic policies aimed to preserve and consolidate the macroeconomic stability achieved in the recent years.

Mr Kunda says government will endeavour to encourage traditional economic growth with a deliberate policy of targeting new growth opportunities that can considerably reduce poverty in the country.

The Vice President said this in Mongu over the weekend when he flagged off the 2009 Western Province MMD card renewal exercise.

And Mr. Kunda has directed the MMD provincial leaders to revive and galvanize the youth wing by making it vibrant ahead of the 2011 Presidential and Parliamentary General Elections.

The Vvie President who is also MMD National Trustee has also implored the MMD members and youths in the country to be innovative by engaging in business ventures so that they can also contribute financially to the operations of the party.

The Vice President urged MMD members to take the card renewal exercise seriously with renewed vigour and ensure that the party remains formidable on the political arena.

He advised the youths to take advantage of the on-going issuance of the national registration cards exercise and register in numbers as voters for the 2011 Presidential and Parliamentary General Elections.

And when welcoming the defectors from the PF/UPND pact, Mr. Kunda said the defections are a clear signal that the pact is only made up of two individuals in the names of Mr. Sata and Mr. Hichilema.

Mr Kunda charged that the pact had just brought confusion on the political scene that even ordinary members of the PF and UPND do not know which of the two political parties is join the other.

Speaking at the function, MMD National Chairperson Michael Mabenga assured Mr. Kunda that party was united and ready to defeat the PF/UPND pact in 2011.

Mr. Mabenga who is also Lands Deputy Minister said the people of Western Province have embraced development hence their choice to endorse MMD as a party of their preference.

Earlier, Western Province Chairperson, Simasiku Namakando appealed to the government to consider resuming work on the Mongu-Kalabo road before the onset of the rainy season.

Mr. Namakando said there is urgent need to attend to the road network in the province to stimulate economic activities in the area.

Meanwhile, President Rupiah Banda has donated K10 million towards the operations of the party in the province.

Mr. Kunda made the donation on behalf of the President before contributing K5 million to the party in the province.

ZANIS

The decision by President Rupiah Banda’s government to split the Ministry of Agriculture into two government ministries is one of the most absurd decisions a government can make. One would perhaps agree with the split if it was a line Ministry that actually performed the functions of rearing fish and livestock and tending to food crops (including maize, cassava, sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes, beans, wheat, and groundnuts).

This is clearly a decision designed to create sinecures for some of the MMD leaders who have not yet been compensated for their contributions to MMD campaigns. Vice-President George Kunda should not expect Zambians to accept the rationale he has presented to Parliament for the split. It is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible!

What Zambia needs is a Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security that is designed to advise the Republican President on, and spearhead the implementation of, policies relating to the following: sustainable agricultural development and long-term food security – including the provision of agricultural incentives, support to agribusiness establishments and agricultural research centers, damming rivers, and construction of irrigation canals; and coordination of national programs and activities pertaining to agriculture and food security with those of the private sector and both provincial and municipal governments.

Such a Ministry should support all kinds of agricultural pursuits and en­deavors, including dairy farming, ranching, fish farming, horticul­ture, and crop husband­ry.

Splitting such a Ministry into the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries will only contribute to the usual duplication of effort that characterizes the current structure of government. For example, cooperatives can be established by growers of food crops as well as farmers in the livestock and fisheries industry – the split in the Ministry will mean that each one of the two new ministries will separately handle this function!

Instead of creating sinecures, we should be thinking about how Zambia can attain sustain­able agricultural de­ve­lopment and long-term food secu­rity through such measures and initiatives as the following:

1. Zambia National Service: We should fully and promptly revive and revitalize the Zambia National Service (ZNS) production camps, which should accept enroll­ment by Zambian citizens on a volu­ntary basis, as well as promo­te and bolster agri­cultural pro­duction in the camps thro­ugh greater fina­ncial support and generous condi­tions of service for ZNS person­nel. Vacated refugee camps dotted across the country should also be utilized for agriculture-related training, crop production, and other vocations to be facilitated by a cadre of skilled and professional trainers.
2. Provincial Agricultural Estates: We should require all provinces to create revenue-generating agricultural schemes, and to use a portion of the output of the schemes to maintain their own local food reserves.
3. District Councils: District councils which current­ly run municipal farms as part of their commercial undertak­ings should be encour­aged to continue running such farms.
4. School Production Units: All educational and training institu­tions should be encoura­ged to join in the nation’s quest for greater agricultur­al output and food security. In this endeavor, we should require each and every student and trainee to actively participate in agriculture-based production units at their schools, colleges and universities. Their partici­pation in such units should be graded and noted in their testimoni­als.
5. The Military and Civil Police: Police camps and military barracks and garrisons should also be expected to initiate and maintain agricultural production units.
6. Agricultural Incentives: We should provide for attractive agri­cultural incen­tives to boost both small-scale and large-scale farm­ers. As provided for in the World Trade Organizati­on’s Uruguay Round acc­ord conc­luded in December 1993 in Punta del Este, Uru­guay, WTO mem­ber-countries’ quest for enhan­ced food security precedes the need for progres­sive redu­ction of governmen­tal supp­ort for, and protection of, agricultural activities in order to enhance market access and com­peti­tive­ness interna­tionally.
7. Agricultural Inputs: We should promote effi­ciency in process­ing, sourc­ing, and distribution of agricultural inputs by provi­ding for informal trade in agricultural inputs among farmers, and the crea­tion of a “Far­mers’ Hold­ing Company” by farmers (through a low-interest loan, if need­ed), to supply low-cost inputs nationwide at zero value-added tax—inc­luding seeds, seed­lings, ferti­lize­rs, pesti­cides, insecticides, stock feeds, and grain bags. The cooperating farm­ers should as­sume ownership of the com­pany as founding sharehold­ers, and the com­pany should prefera­bly be registered and operat­ed as a corporate entity. Besides, we should encourage farmers to engage in direct and informally initiated far­mer-to-farmer trade in low-cost and orga­nic agricultur­al inp­uts—including compost, chick­en-droppi­ngs and cattle-dung manures—and young birds, ani­mals and species of fish intended for breed­ing.
8. Agriculture-Related Imports: All the various kinds of imports that are currently exempted from customs duty should continue to enjoy the duty-free status—including fertilizer, irrigation equipment, irrigation pumps, tractors, machinery for soil preparation and cultivation, harvesting and threshing machinery, poultry machinery, fungicides, and herbicides.
9. Marketing of Produce: We should create—in collaboration with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ), the Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF), and other relevant stakeholders—a marketing system for all kinds of agri­cultural produce designed to provide for the following: direct sourcing of such produce from farmers by mill­ers, re­tailers and other industrial buyers; and procure­ment of unsold produce by the Food Re­serve Agency at wholesale prices for preser­vation and/or distri­bu­tion to government institutions like boarding schools, colleges and hos­pitals.
10. Irrigation Schemes: We should actively seek to create and maint­ain irri­gation schemes at tax-payer expense, including the damming of rivers and const­ruction of irri­gation can­als nationwide. We need to promote all-season crop production—January through Decem­ber.
11. Other Imperatives: We should create feeder roads and maintain old ones nationwide, im­prove training conducted in agri­cultural re­search centers, provide for low-interest loans for erecting secure storage facilities, and extend incen­tives to agri­busi­nesses and canners and proce­ssors of agricultural pro­duce.