ZAMBIA: Govt bans maize imports

LUSAKA, 14 May 2003 (IRIN) - The Zambian government has halted the importation of fresh maize stocks and opted to buy the commodity locally following predictions of a good harvest by the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU). Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Mundia Sikatana this week told journalists the government was confident there was enough maize locally to feed the country and importing would "kill" the local market. "There is no maize that is going to be allowed to be imported, nobody in his right mind is going to be allowed to import maize today. Importing maize today is like taking coal to Newcastle ... I shall not allow it." Sikatana's decision comes a fortnight after ZNFU executive director Songowayo Zyambo asked the government to halt any further maize imports after looking at preliminary studies on the available harvest. The ZNFU, comprising mostly commercial farmers, said some 55,000 mt of early maize, harvested in April and May, was already available and awaiting purchase but its sale was threatened by imports. Zambia's national monthly maize consumption is 40,000 mt according to government studies. President Levy Mwanawasa on Tuesday told the Peasant Farmers Association that the government would announce a minimum "floor price" this week for the purchase of maize. The association had complained about unscrupulous maize traders who were buying the commodity cheaply from desperate peasants in isolated parts of the country. Mwanawasa told the subsistence farmers the government would purchase maize in what he called the "hinterlands", which have remained inaccessible to all but the more enterprising of Zambia's fledgling private sector. Last year Zambia declared a national disaster after the country's maize crop failed for the second consecutive year due to a severe drought, threatening the food security of 2.9 million people. For more details on crop estimates