ENDING NSHIMA DEPENDENCE COULD AFFECT FARMERS- AGRIC EXPERT

By Jessica Mwansa

DIVERSIFYING the country’s diet requires a lot of investment therefore ending nshima dependence will not work if the country relies on donor funding to diversify agriculture because such money comes with conditions, agriculture expert Sylvester Kalonge has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Kalonge said development in Zambia could only be driven by Zambians themselves and by using Zambian resources adding that a number of donor funding resources came with conditions.

“The funds come with attached conditions which may actually be detrimental to where we want to drive this nation to. Therefore, if we want to develop this country and diversify our eating habits, it has to start amongst ourselves. Fighting against nshima dependency will require a lot of resources, he urged.

He said there was a need to help farmers have access to bank loans and investment in order to plant other crops aside maize.

“If we want to be food secure and want to diversify our sources of food in this country, there must be investment in that area and in that regard, investing using donor funds is not going to help us.

We are a developing country and that means that our small scale farmers in this country would be affected if nshima dependence was to end because majority of the farmers grow maize and that makes them vulnerable,” he said.

He added that there was a need for the Government to make it mandatory for the small scale farmers that were accessing the Comprehensive Agriculture Support Program (CASP) to be registered with other organizations to raise funds.

“The Government should make it mandatory for the sake of the small scale farmers that are accessing CASP to also be registered with some of these organizations that look at giving out loans for farmers to have access to finance,” he said.

He also hailed the Government’s efforts in preparing small scale farmers for climate change effects.

“The inter-governmental panel on climate change had indicated that the small scale farmers are the most affected by climate change especially that we are in a developing country. Every farmer that is accessing CASP should therefore be insured because we would be sure that the farmers are not going to lose out in case of droughts and floods,” he said.