We caution govt over decision to export maize

By Daily Revelation Editor

Last week, Cabinet approved the sale of 500,000 surplus maize to various destinations around the African region.

Following a Cabinet meeting, chief government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa stated that the export of the surplus maize was premised on the fact that agriculture was a business.

“Cabinet approved the export of surplus maize grain totalling 501,620 Mt or its equivalent quantity of mealie meal to various destinations in the region,” Mweetwa stated. “This is premised on the fact that the government has pronounced that agriculture is business.”

Mweetwa stated that the country had a total stock of 4 million Metric tons of maize.

It is good that our country recorded a bumper harvest of 3.6 million metric tons of white maize in the 2024/2025 farming season.

The bumper harvest comes after the country experienced the worst drought in history and this resulted in decreased maize production and other crops thereby affecting food availability and livelihoods.

We all remember what we went through as a country. There was maize shortage and the government had to import maize and initiate irrigated maize farming through the defence forces to be able to meet our national demand.

Zambia National Service (ZNS) had to be brought in to meet the demand and enable many citizens to have access to affordable mealie meal which had become scarce and expensive.

There was so much talk about the government bringing in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) maize which is believed to be harmful for consumption. The country experienced all sorts of drama during this period but somehow we survived. Came the 2024/2025 farming season the country received good rains and enabled farmers and the defence force to produce enough maize.

Now that we have a bumper harvest, we seem to be in a hurry to export maize before satisfying our national maize consumption reserves through FRA.

The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) is yet to meet its national reserve threshold and now has to focus also on purchasing for government to sell.

We hope this move won’t backfire in the long run assuming the next farming season is not favourable.

Selling might sound like a good move in terms of bringing in the much needed forex to strengthen the local currency and help grow the economy, but caution must be exercised to avoid getting the country back into problems with maize and mealie-meal in future.

We would like to caution the government that we coming from a similar situation not long ago when this same administration depleted our reserves using the same reasoning, that agriculture is a business. We suffered badly and it took the heavenly blessings of good rains to recover. How sure are we that the heavens will be good to us next year?

The government must wait for FRA to meet its reserve threshold, assess that private grain traders and millers too procure enough maize before they can think of exporting the surplus to our neighbouring countries.

In any case, why are we assuming that all the maize aggregated to the 3.6m bumper harvest will remain intact, because we know farmers grow for different reasons. What if they are also selling privately to buyers who are exporting, how much maize will be exported.

If the government fails to secure adequate reserves for local consumption, the country is likely to experience another shortage of maize.

It is insane to record a bumper harvest and end up importing maize from other countries to feed citizens come the next farming season.

In the same vein, we urge our farmers not to sell all the maize to briefcase buyers who may in turn export maize, instead, sell to FRA to ensure national food security.

We are also aware of the maize still laying around various parts of the country as the FRA has not yet bought this maize.

We urge FRA to move quickly and secure this grain before the farmers get tempted to sell to briefcase buyers.

The government cannot be boasting about a bumper harvest they have not secured. We urge them to be wise in the manner they will handle this bumper harvest compared to the scenario we witnessed soon after they formed government, where they excitedly decided to start selling maize against timely advice from seasoned players and other experts in the sector. We all know how that ended. Let us not repeat this mistake.