Government has directed Zambia National Service (ZNS) to immediately start preparations for cultivation of irrigated maize in all its farms with center pivot irrigation equipment.
And the ZNS Commander, Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi has announced the suspension of growing of wheat this year in a bid to commit all ZNS irrigation equipment to the growing of maize.
This comes in the wake of a declaration of the drought situation in the country as a national disaster and emergency by the Republican President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force, Mr Hakainde Hichilema, on Wednesday last week.
Hon Lufuma has since constituted a Drought Disaster and Emergency Response Team to coordinate the speedy actualization of the Republican President’s directive as well as facilitate the implementation of measures the Ministry will put in place.
Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, Minister of Defence Honourable Ambrose Lwiji Lufuma, said the Republican President and Government’s thrust in mitigating the impact of the calamity is to leverage Zambia’s Defence Force to expand irrigation schemes as one way of engaging in off-season maize production.
“You may recall that among the many measures the Republican President outlined in his address, was an aspect of leveraging Zambia’s Defence Force to expand irrigation schemes as a way to increase food production,” the Minister said.
“As Ministry of Defence therefore, we are summoning the inherent strengths and discipline of the Zambia Army, Zambia Air Force and Zambia National Service (ZNS) to quickly get to work and assure the country of staple food availability.”
The Minister has since tasked the three Defence Wings to implement wide ranging short and medium term measures which included the streamlining of distribution of Eagles mealie meal alongside continued forging of partnerships with more private millers to ensure every corner of the country is supplied with fairly priced staple commodity.
Hon Lufuma also implored the three Defence Wings to quickly craft robust irrigation strategies to enable the Ministry lobby for funds.
The Minister also appealed to ZNS to offer technical and mechanical support to its Sister Services, considering that the Service has been in agricultural production for long and boasts of an earth-moving equipment wing.
He directed ZNS to complement efforts of extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture by regularly sharing tested agricultural knowledge and best practices in production with local farmers near its localities.
And the ZNS Commander revealed that the Service will put to crop 1, 978 hectors of irrigated maize by the end of July this year with a projected yield of about 15,000 metric tonnes of Maize grain by the end of third quarter of the year.
Lt Gen Solochi indicated that two new farms will be added to ZNS Production Units, namely Shikabeta in Rufunsa and Luena farms in Kawambwa bringing on board 128 and 520 hectares respectively.
Meanwhile, the Commander Zambia Army, Lieutenant General Dennis Sitali Alibuzwi, said his Institution will quickly hit the ground to strategize on how best to handle the natural calamity that has affected the country.
And the Zambia Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Oscar Nyoni, said his Institution had already started exploring the possibility of putting its Lufwanyama farm to production and had initiated active engagements with traditional leaders in the area to acquire additional parcels of land to expand the farm.
Lt Gen Nyoni also informed the Minister of Defence that he had since reached out to his ZNS counterpart to have earth-moving machinery deployed to the area for land clearing which ZNS was in the process of releasing.