Govt. to embark on construction of milling plants and warehouses

Govt. to embark on construction of milling plants and warehouses

Chipata, June 26, ZANIS……Government will soon embark on the construction of a milling plants and warehouses in all districts countrywide for the production of mealie meal and storage of maize respectively.

Agriculture and Livestock Deputy Minister Rodgers Mwelwa told a stakeholders meeting in Chipata which was attended by businessmen, the clergy, Civil Society Organizations and Government Heads of Department that government will use the savings from the removal of subsidy on maize and fuel to do these projects.

Mr. Mwelwa said government has approached some Chinese contractors who are ready to start the programme as the contract is sealed.

The Deputy Minister said by constructing the milling plants in all the districts the price of staple food will stabilize and private millers will not exploit the citizens with exorbitant prices while warehouses will be used for safe storage of the crop.

He said the savings will also be used for research through sales to ascertain the amount of input such as fertilizer to be administered in different localities so as to enable farmers to grow more food.

“We want a framer to produce 40by 50Kilograms bags of maize from one Lima as opposed to 13 bags after the research,”Mr. Mwelwa said.

 The Deputy Minister also said that the money will allow government to encourage farmers engage in out grower schemes through irrigation so that more than one crop is grown in a year.

Meanwhile government is expected to flag off the distribution of D compound fertilizer from Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia before the end of this week.