GOVERNMENT tells us that it is planning to double the country’s strategic grain reserves from 750 000 tonnes to 1,5 million tonnes to cushion citizens from hunger in the event that harvests fail.
In a Crop and Livestock Assessment Report, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development minister Anxious Masuka said: “The government reviewed the physical strategic grain reserve in 2022 from 750 000 tonnes to 1,5 million tonnes. To achieve this, surplus annual production and excess annual consumption must be planned over the next three seasons.”
This very noble and welcome proposition, has, however, been too long coming for our comfort.
Most concerning about all this is that government saw it fit to revise our grain reserves two years ago and we are just curious to know why it is taking forever for us to get organised when we perennially face the challenge of hunger.
What is happening with our grain reserves clearly highlights one of the major problems with some of our colleagues in government, which is that of not walking the talk.
Honestly, we cannot keep on being told government is planning this and that for years on end without anything tangible being seen on the ground, especially when hunger keeps stalking us.
Talk is cheap and an embarrassment when the number of people joining food handout queues keeps rising in a so-called agro-based economy.
Ironically, we used to have robust grain reserves to the extent that we were the region’s grain basket. And the fact that we have had some very good harvests in the not so distant past is an serious indictment on our friends in government who are exhibiting high levels of incompetence.
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Given that it is now beyond debate that climate change is reality, government should be telling us that it has set up an emergency kitty to immediately start the process of beefing up our grain reserves. The kitty should have immediately supported massive winter cropping of both wheat and our staple maize.
But we are happy to be still planning on paper to increase our staple food reserves over the next three seasons or years.
While we are at it, we may as well remind government that what it is planning to do requires serious funding and commitment, which have obviously been lacking as far as agriculture is concerned and as a result we continue being hungry as a nation in a country endowed with fertile soils and a relatively good water supply.
What could be more rewarding for any government than to bask in the glory that it is able to feed not only its people but other nations as well? By now we should be the leading exporter of grain and other food crops, yet here we are being bailed out by such far-flung nations as Russia, which is many seas yonder.
It is quite ignominious that our government never seems to be in a hurry to achieve any of the goals it sets for itself and is comfortable to craft blueprints to gather dust on shelves.
