11 December 2008
editorial
IT is only on the continents of Africa and Asia that even as we grapple with the food security situation calls by authorities encouraging people to embrace crop diversification have fallen on deaf ears.
Unfortunately so, it is from these two vast continents that reports of food shortages have been registered with famine and its effects afflicting millions of its inhabitants.
While it can be argued that many world governments have not done much to counter such stereotype thinking regarding staple foods such as rice or maize, considered the only sources of carbohydrates, it has by now dawned on many that for the sake of their own survival, they have to change their ways of living.
Here in Zambia, the cultivation of such energy-giving foods like cassava, millet or sorghum, which are also drought resistant, have over the years been encouraged and yet no significant amounts to register any marked differences have been harvested and harnessed.
To that effect, the perennial problem of inadequate maize stocks or a lack of it continues to dog us year in, year out.
Today, the Government, through the Food Reserve Agency, is striving hard to ensure there is enough maize to go round to meet the nation's ever-growing demands and ultimately bring the soaring prices of the commodity down.
As clearly and rightly stated by the Consumer Association and other stakeholders in the market, the challenges of ensuring the maize which is being imported at great cost does not find its way into neighbouring countries as finished mealie meal products are great.
It has happened before in this country, where heavily subsidised maize imported to stabilise the food situation has seen itself going out through our borders into other countries where it fetches even higher prices at the expense of Zambians.
And if such valid concerns are left without critical consideration, the efforts being made by the Government to forestall an impending food crisis will come to nothing and the status quo will remain.
Citizens themselves can help the Government by adhering to calls for diversification from the traditional maize to other even more nutritious starch sources.
There is really no reason that in this day and age people should go hungry, just because there is no maize.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
