Government in conjunction with JICA has set up a facility at Lusaka’s Mount Makulu Research Centre, which will produce banana nurseries for the farming community in the country.
Minister of Agriculture Eustarckio Kazonga says the move is in an effort to control the banana disease, which has the potential to wipe out bananas in the country.
Dr. Kazonga said in a ministerial statement in Parliament on Wednesday that personnel have already been trained in techniques that will enable them produce disease free planting materials.
The minister said the facility will be fully operational in the next four months.
He named Lusaka, Southern, Central, Copper belt, Eastern and Luapula Provinces as areas that are affected by the banana viral disease.
The Minister also said a quarantine unit has already been established to monitor the importation of bananas into the country.
Dr. Kazonga has advised farmers to uproot banana plantations that are affected by the disease.
He explained that the banana viral disease can be controlled through uprooting of the plants and spraying.
[ZNBC]
Statements like these.
Do they reach the pheasant farmers?
Who supports them while these new plants grow to fruit?
Poor people will keep growing the diseased plants for years until these saplings are ready for market(money).
Government needed to act faster than this.
A vision it’s called.
Do you still have to get off the Bus to wash your feet on some bus routes?
the plants have Gone Bananas!!
Key word in this article JICA, the Japanese through JICA have always been our consistent friends through good and bad times. They never even mingle in our political sphere. Why has Zambia not called on the most technological nation Japan to invest in Zambia.
5.
As Rupiah and his cronies are being funded by China in the campaigns.
Their style of investment is how it effects their bank accounts.
It will be a sight to see how much Rupiah has now in his bank after a few years on Presidents wage.
Does anybody have a copy of his 2008 president elect asset statement?
It’s in the constitution for him to provide an honest list of assets.
#3 This practice is standard procedure for controlling movement of various parasites that cause plant and animal diseases. Actually it isn’t being enforced enough in Zambia as it should. Last time I traveled in Botswana we had to take the “shoe dip”. Its essential because they have a huge beef industry.
Here in Zambia I think the relevant departments have relaxed and only react when there is an outbreak. I’ve seen a Tsetse fly control barrier at Chongwe where the guys there just go round your vehicle with a net! They don’t even spray anything let alone look underneath the vehicle. I’ve often wondered how effective their method is really.