HH HAS DONE IT
…agriculture’s good performance speaks for him, Simuuwe says
ZAMBIANS must re-elect President Hakainde Hichilema for a second term in office because he has performed well in agriculture, says United Party for National Development (UPND) media director Mark Simuuwe.
In an interview, Simuuwe said ever since the UPND took over government in 2021, it had prioritised clearing the heavy debt left by the Patriotic Front (PF), which had affected over 268,000 small-scale farmers under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
“We have performed well in agriculture. In 2021 when we took over leadership, you recall we found 268,000 farmers unpaid, some of them for two years. Part of the message that resonated with the people during our campaign was that we are going to clear all those outstanding areas,” he said.
Simuuwe said Hichilema had reformed the agriculture sector from being a traditional practice to a business.
He said many Zambians were now taking farming as a profession and a business, not only for income generation but also for economic development.
“Then UPND came under the theme of making agriculture a business, farming as business, and to walk the talk in the area of diversification by dealing for the first time vigorously with non-traditional exports, particularly the agricultural sector itself. So riding on the payments for farmers, the President signed the Market Access Agreements with Rwanda, with South Africa, with all surrounding countries like Angola, Mozambique, later on China, United Arab Emirates and many other Gulf nations there for exports,” Simuuwe said.
He said government had given financial and technical support to small-scale farmers in irrigation to make agriculture sustainable and not only depend on rain.
Simuuwe said the dream to harvest 10 million metric tonnes of maize was a living activity, which should motivate Zambians to vote Hichilema back on August 13.
“ZNS [Zambia National Service] had already harvested maize out of irrigation. How did we do it? In 2022, the government released K1 million to conduct an audit of farm blocks across the country so that they could be managed by ZNS. Then the President brought all security wings on board to conduct agricultural activities. And this is the reason today we can safely set a target of 10 million tonnes,” he said.
Simuuwe said the government was now working on the market system in the region where Zambian maize was in high demand.
“Where’s the market? One of them is that of the DR Congo. You also have Kenya, you have Tanzania,” he said.
Simuuwe said Hichilema had made it possible to increase fertiliser production to address the high cost of farming in Zambia.
He said the fertiliser plant in Southern Province had created 5,000 jobs for young people.
“Alongside this, we do recognise that with the increase in the number of farmers, it also means the demand for fertiliser will be high. We decided through an arrangement of a local investor and a developer to set up a huge fertiliser manufacturing plant in the name of United Capital Fertiliser, with the capacity to have between 1,500 and 5,000 jobs,” Simuuwe said.
“That equipment is already producing 300,000 metric tonnes of urea on an annual basis, with over 160,000 metric tonnes of branded fertiliser. We are already exporting to about eight countries. In addition to Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia, which is producing 288,000 metric tonnes of urea and over 130,000 metric tonnes of branded fertiliser on an annual basis. The biggest market right now is Malawi, where they are doing tea plantations, meaning we are earning an income there.”
Story courtesy of UPND Media
