Farmers in Monze district of Southern province have expressed disappointment over this year’s maize floor price, which was announced by government through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) last week.

According to a statement made available in Monze and signed by Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) Monze branch chairman Simon Malambo, farmers in Monze were not happy with the K65, 000 floor price per 50 kilogram bag of maize.

Mr. Malambo said farmers would have preferred a price of up to K75, 000 per 50 kg bag of maize because production costs for those who purchased fertilizer from private sellers not less than K2.8 million per hectare.

In the last agriculture season, a 50 kilogram bag of fertilizer was costing an average cost of K250, 000.

He said basing the calculation of the floor price on the cost of fertilizer under Fertilizer Support Programme of K50, 000 per 50kg bag was disadvantaging some farmers that never got fertilizer from the FSP.[quote]

He explained that the development would incapacitate some farmers from purchasing fertilizer for the next farming season because they would have enough money.

Mr. Malambo noted that this would mean that the number of farmers that would require FSP support for the next farming season would increase.

He added that this would promote a dependency syndrome among farmers in the district.

Mr. Malambo said encouraging the dependence syndrome among farmers through dishing out handouts in form of food relief and inputs through FSP would contribute greatly to destroying of the farming industry in the district.

He said farmers who were members of the Pemba-Monze Association were in support of ZNFU’s position on the floor price.

Mr. Malambo wondered who the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives consulted before setting the floor price.

He said government must ensure that stakeholders and farmers themselves were consulted extensively at district, provincial and national levels in order to strike a balance in its decision over the matter.

ZANIS

President Rupiah Banda is today expected in Livingstone to officiate at a two-day Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) V1 conference at Zambezi Sun hotel.

According to a program released by Southern Province Permanent Secretary Darius Hakayobe, President Banda is expected to touch down at Livingstone International Airport at 16:00 hours and will be received by Provincial Minister Daniel Munkombwe, Provincial MMD Chairman Sol Muzyamba, City Mayor Joram Mwinda and other senior officials.

Mr. Banda is expected to officially give his opening address on Wednesday morning at the conference where Commerce Minister Felix Mutati, representatives from the private sector, co-operating partners and cabinet ministers will be present.

The ZIBAC V1 conference will be officially closed on Thursday by President Banda who will then be expected to fly back to Lusaka at 14:30 hours .

And Special Assistant to the President Dickson Jere said the meeting will have a restricted number of participants, who will include selected Cabinet Ministers, business representatives, cooperating partners and international advisors.

The meeting will also comprise of ten high-level business leaders from different countries and business sectors led by Lord Simon Cairns.

The theme of this year’s ZIBAC meeting is “Global Economic Crisis: Zambia’s Response to growth and Competitiveness.’’

ZIBAC was created in 2003 to provide advise to the Republican President and his Cabinet through the support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), other donors and the Commonwealth Business Council.

The ZIBAC process has previously been used to identify key priorities and action plans to address issues such as telecoms, policy, labour reforms, and private-public partnerships for infrastructure development, citizen’s economic empowerment and mining agreements.

ZANIS

Government says Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are currently central to the process of development.

Transport and Communications Deputy Minister Mubika Mubika says it is practically impossible for the world to be what it is in terms of politics, commerce and trade, social networking and personal well being without any means of communication.

Mr. Mubika however says the current statistics on ICT as reported by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) paints a gloomy picture of Africa.

He said the reports raises doubts as to whether the continent will be able to attain the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number eight, target five, which is specific to the ICT sector.

Mr Mubika was speaking when he officiated at the International Telecommunications Regional Development Forum whose theme is “Next Generation Networks and Broadband: Opportunities and Challenges” in Lusaka today.

Speaking earlier, Communications Authority of Zambia (CAZ) Acting Chief Executive Officer Judith Tembo observed that the African Continent has continued to trail far behind the developed world in the telecommunication industry.

Mrs Tembo said although efforts are being made to reduce the digital divide, the continent is constrained by lack of adequate financial and human capacity to deploy new technologies.

She said the Next Generation Networks hold significant promise for the developed world where wireless broadband access includes the use of satellite based technologies.

Mrs. Tembo said Next Generation Networks could dramatically improve access to telecommunications particularly in rural areas.

Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Sami Al-Basheer Al Morshid said Next Generation Networks and broadband services are poised to bring significant benefits to all parts of the world.

In a speech read for him by Head of the Regional Office for Africa Brahima Sanou, Mr Morshid said the provision of broadband to the masses is one of the major challenges that face the global ICT community.

ZANIS

Agriculture and Commercial Society of Zambia (ACSZ) says it is optimistic that the global economic downturn would not have adverse effects on this year’s agriculture and commercial show.

ACSZ president Paul Mumbuluma said in an interview today that several local and international exhibitors have expressed interest to participate in the forthcoming Agriculture and Commercial Show.

Mr. Mumbuluma said this was a signal that the most companies were ready to take part in year’s agriculture and commercial show.

He said the Show Society did not anticipate a fall in the number of exhibitors as most companies would want to sell their products and services even in the light of the economic meltdown.

Mr. Mumbuluma disclosed that so far about 18 countries had through the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services shown interest to participate in cultural activities during the show.

ACSZ would soon have a meeting with exhibitors after which the society would be in the position to determine how many companies would be participating at the agriculture and commercial show this year.
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