IT is shocking that commercial farmers can today cry foul over the Government's decision to import maize in order to bring down and stabilise the price of mealie meal.

We feel it is hypocritical of the farmers to complain because memories are still very fresh on the circumstances surrounding the current maize imports and the decision by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to offload maize on the market.

Those who have been following this problem will recall that when the prices of mealie meal just took the skyward turn slightly over a month ago, the Government stated that there was something wrong because the country still had a lot of maize.

It will also be remembered how the commercial farmers through the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) stated at that time that they had no maize and even those with some stocks had already committed them to millers.

In fact, the commercial farmers even argued that it would be unwise for any of their members to hold on to maize that late because they needed money to finance the production for the current farming season.

At some point the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) even accused the Government of having made a wrong forecast when it estimated that Zambia had a maize surplus of about 143,000 tonnes.

According to MAZ, whose statistics were never disputed by the ZNFU, the maize shortage was real because their survey showed that Zambia had a deficit ranging between 100,000 tonnes and 200,000 tonnes.

Based on this and other information from key stakeholders, the Government went ahead and directed the FRA to offload the maize in reserves on the market and because these reserves need to be maintained, the state also sanctioned the importation of 100,000 tonnes of maize as a back-up.

It, therefore, boggles the mind that the same people who told the Government to seek alternative ways of bringing down the price and stabilising it can today accuse the Government of threatening future production through the importation of maize.

Now that the farmers have confessed that they are still stuck with their maize, the best that they can do is to offload it on the market so that they can re-invest in production and ensure that the country does not face problems after the next crop harvest.

One would have thought that although farming is a business, the crisis that befell the nation was serious and deserved sincerity by all the players in order to come up with a solution that would be in the best interest of the nation.

But as many people said at the height of the problem, issues of food border on national security and cannot be left to millers, farmers and maize traders if the interests of ordinary citizens are to be protected.

The behaviour of the commercial farmers just goes to prove that in critical times like this, the private sector cannot be relied on to sort out the country's problems.

The Government and the FRA should, therefore, learn from this and ensure that they are able to handle future crises without having to look to private sector players like millers, commercial farmers and maize grain traders.