PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says it is immoral for Zambia to be food insecure because of one dry season, highlighting the need to work together as a country to secure food.
Speaking when he met the Livestock Services Board of Directors, Thursday, President Hichilema said there was a need to begin exporting beef in order to stabilise the domestic price.
“We must work together as a country to secure food. It’s immoral for us to have food insecurity because of one dry season. We have to work together to achieve these targets. It’s clear that Botswana is able to export beef, not because the whole country is disease free. They have zones. We can create zones and clean livestock even in shorter than three months. We would like that lead to come from you. We’re better endowed than Botswana, so what’s the issue? We’re not working as a team. The Ministry does its own things, Livestock does its own things, farmers are arguing, fighting. No. Can we find solutions to our challenges. Let’s have a checklist of work that we’re going to do and immediately begin to export. We need exports to stabilise the domestic price. The price of beef has collapsed. How are you going to achieve that target if the price is destructive? Who’s going to invest in more heifers if you’re not making money? Commercial dynamics, we can change that in months,” he said.
President Hichilema said it was time to consolidate the role of livestock in the agriculture sector.
“We recognise the importance of the agriculture sector in this context of climate change. The importance of us looking at agriculture, crop, but animal, livestock as well. Many times, we forget that the largest quantum of grain, even our staple food is grown by small scale farmers, of whom 95 percent of them don’t have tractors. How do they grow their maize and other food stuff? Using ox-drawn implements, back to livestock. So many times we talk maize, sorghum and we say nothing about livestock which provides the draft power to produce cereals. It’s time to consolidate the role of livestock in our agriculture sector,” said President Hichilema.
“It’s affordable, adds value, it’s food, milk, dairy farming and cash generating. I’m one of those who’d have never gone to school without cattle. We have to secure food. Our target is 10 million tonnes of maize, one million tonnes of wheat, seven million cattle. Water harvest for livestock, crop protection. The issues of disease control becomes important. We’d like livestock services to be at the center of the disease control project. If the disease burden is not managed properly, we won’t meet our 10 million tonnes of maize and seven million cattle”.
Meanwhile, Livestock Services Chairperson Faisal Ishmael lamented that climate change had affected many livestock farmers.
“As you know, we’re undergoing climate change which is a global phenomenon, and this has affected many of our livestock farmers. As your officers have indicated, your government wishes to look into measures that can be put into place to support our farmers. We are the largest agricultural cooperative in the country with a flagship, we have a foot count of close to 250,000 people coming into our premises annually. We have the largest educational training workshop seminars where almost 200,000 small scale farmers benefit from training workshop seminars, technical skills training,” said Ishmael.
