Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Brian Mundubile has advised Government to immediately engage commercial farmers to consider growing winter maize before the food shortage degenerates into a crisis of unmanageable levels.
Mr. Mundubile says the current situation might worsen without winter maize as Zambia is likely to record poor harvests this season due to low rainfall and poor distribution of farming inputs last year.
He adds that the current mealie- meal shortage could have been avoided if Government listened to the numerous pleas that many Zambians made especially Members of Parliament in the House.
Mr. Mundubile says government, however, remained adamant leading to the current situation but there is still time to salvage the situation.
Meanwhile, Advocates for People’s Prosperity Party President Mwenya Musenge says there is need to rebuild the food of the country if it is to stand at a strategic position in terms of trade.
Speaking in an interview with Flava News, Mr. Musenge noted that under the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) regime, the country had built enough food reserves to cater for the nation in case of any crisis.
He says it is unfortunate that the UPND thought the country had enough maize stock leftover and allowed exportations much to the detriment of the countries own needs and the most prudent thing to do now is to ensure that maize and mealie meal are reserved.
Minister of Finance and National Planning Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane issued a Statutory Instrument on Tuesday to allow for the importation of mealie-meal to stabilize prices of the commodity.
He said government has decided to lift taxes on maize imports to respond to the artificial shortage of the staple food.
And in press briefing on Wednesday, Government acknowledged the current food deficit in the country and has since stopped any export of maize and mealie meal.
