ZNFU commends govt for road rehabs

ZNFU commends govt for road rehabs

Luwingu, August 5, 2014, ZANIS – The Zambia Nation Farmers Union (ZNFU) has commended government for the ongoing infrastructure development which has seen major roads connecting districts being upgraded to bituminous standards.

Northern Province ZNFU regional manager Hendrix Kabwe said government needs to be commended for the  work it was doing to improve the living standards of the poor people in rural areas.

Mr Kabwe observed that the ongoing construction of roads, health posst and school infrastructure by the PF government will improve the living standards of the people in remote parts of the country.

He said that ZNFU was impressed with roads being constructed countrywide adding that transportation of farm inputs is now easily accessed by farmers and transporters are not finding it difficult to ferry inputs and products.

He explained that in the past farmers in remote parts of the country where facing challenges to transport farm inputs such as fertilizer and farm produce while transport owners had previously feared that their vehicles would break down because of the bad road network.

Mr Kabwe said this when ZNFU director Joseph Lungu paid a courtesy call on the district commissioner Mambwe Katontoka yesterday at her office.

He said that the PF government has scored a plus in infrastructure development because most of the roads which were in bad state have been improved on .

He appealed to the government to also consider rehabilitating feeder roads which most small scale farmers use when taking their produce to satellite depots.

“We have seen the road linking Luwingu to Mansa being worked on, we have seen roads linking Luwingu to Kawambwa being worked on, we want government to move in and rehabilitate all our feeder roads because all our farmers uses feeder roads to bring their produce to the market,” he added.

He was hopeful that government after completing the construction of the road connecting inter districts under the 8000km link Zambia road project will start working on the feeder roads for easy transportation of farm inputs and produce to and from the market.

Mr Kabwe said also commended the government for starting to construct 650 rural health posts country-wide which will benefit small scale farmers in remote parts of the country thereby reducing distances from their localities to nearby health posts.

He appealed to the ministry of health to send health personnel to man the newly constructed rural health posts to reduce the burden of the sick that are normally referred to the district hospital when they can be attended by the rural health staff.

And Luwingu District Commissioner, Mambwe Katontoka said government has already embarked on rehabilitation of feeder roads in the area .

She cited Chepeshi-Munongwa , Fikonkota-Chifwile and Nsombo-Lundu roads as being among the roads that were in a deplorable state.

Mrs. Katontoka said she was happy that stakeholders like ZNFU have recognized government commitment towards infrastructure in education, health and road networks.