Former President Rupiah Banda has called on farmers across the country to fully participate in food production in order to make Zambia food secure.
Mr. Banda says small scale farmers who are majority producers to take advantage of this year’s farming season to grow a variety of food crops.
He said it is important for Zambia to be food secure by encouraging small scale farmers to fully participate in food production.
Mr. Banda said he is happy with the current farming input distribution strategies as most inputs have been distributed across the country.
He also called on young people to go into farming as there is available land for the activity.
Mr. Banda was speaking in South Africa when he transited to Mozambique where he has been invited by that country to attend former President Joaquim Alberto Chissano’s 80th birthday celebration.
He is also expected to attend a symposium under the theme “Mozambique’s Foreign Policy and Diplomacy from the Origins to the Present”.
The purpose of the symposium is to pay tribute to President Chissano for the important role he played in the building of a new and independent Mozambique as a diplomat and as a statesman.
This is according to a statement issued to the media by First Secretary for Press at the Zambian High Commission in South Africa Naomi Nyawali.
Shut up you useless Bandit….just enjoy your retirement house makaka
Anonymous: RB doesn’t derserve that from u. He had his weak points but he took expert advice in way the PF can ever do.
The worst Presidents in the history of Zambia…Bandit Edgar Lungu and Bandit Rupiah Banda wako ni wako the globetrotter…
@ Nemwine you are wrong Rupiah Banda is still stealing tax payers money via his cohort Bandit Lungu..these guys are working hand in hand bankrupting Zambia by any means necessary
Well, I may not be privy to a lot of things u know. For that I can give u the benefit of the doubt. Of course I’m worried about hw certain decisions that hv been made on behalf of the Republic of Zambia. The full implications of some of these decisions are yet to be felt but it will be nasty believe me.
Sometimes its better to just keep quiet. Mr. Banda your record as president is a disgrace. No one respects what you say. Not even thieves. So you words are meaningless. An empty gong.
Take up farming, be called to become Vice-Presidents then become CORRUPT? To ruin lives? FUSEKE RB!
The Youth should have asked him that at what Age did he go farming himself. This man is shameless with no heart. Not even his Children who are Old are doing Farming. Corrupt Evil Man.
This is a useless mendacious old man who was picked up from the farm by Mwanawasa and has never returned instead he is busy interfering in putting nails in the rotting MMD coffin, he is also busy clapping on the sideline for his equally corrupt protege Edgar Lungu and planting his seeds in PF to do what they did to MMD eat from the inside like termites.
@1.2, You HaWrong! The WASTE President was MWANAWASA.
Most of the bloggers above are frustrated for kicking out better & ending up with PF which is worse & uncaring. Enjoy your choice, RB ali pa easy. He has moved on. He is just advising now
We should also cultivate unused NAMWALA land (1,000 hectares) which HAZALUZA HAGAIN has gotten from his tribo chiefs.
Zambians were unfair to this man RB. He was much better than the PF and recognized and respected the diversity of wht constitutes the Zambian population. Yet he was kicked out of office.
It was RB who was unfair with Zambians! How could he have been voted out if he was fair? He unleashed MMD cadres on innocent citizens, he embraced corruption, he undid what had been built up by the Levy, Magande, Fundanga and Situmbeko crack team, he also openly campaigned on wako ni wako tribalism! One thing to his credit was his sense of humor and occasional fairness!
It was not his fault that the Zambian population fell for lies of more money in your pockets and 90days theory. Although he made mistakes in his 3 years or so but compare that to pf of satas 3 years and compare. During rupiah, how many hours was load shedding, how much was dollar, how much was mealimeal, the economy? And just after 2011 remember the first load shedding of pf…8 hours, Dollar shifted from 7 to 14 because of some st***d SI mistake. Within 3 years the debt moved to billions. Now fast forward and compare him to today. He was bad but not this bad.
The person to blame was membe and his post. Because of his personal issue, he marketed sata and his lies to the nation although deep down he new sata was not fit for the job. He painted rupiah more bad than he actually was and we fell for it and now see where we have ended up.
Nemwine – RB and MMD respected technocrats in sensitive government positions that’s the only reason the economy prospered but where corruption was concerned he was bad, MMD still has the blue trucks the acquired from 10 years ago. This PF of Lungu is not the PF of Sata, Sata would never tolerate the rubbish happening today watching Kaizer Zulu brandishing his pistol everywhere or ministers making a mockery of his name.
@2 HaNEMWINE, Zambians were unfair to Chama Chakomboka. Privatisation thief is worse off than Chama Chakomboka.
Ba Anonymous – Nensoni tamwakwata. You are such a low life to say that against RB. Sometimes just keep quiet than open your mouth and remove all doubt of s.tupidity.
Mr Bwezani we are ready to do that but without money how? we retired but pf cant pay our lump sums we worked for. and they want our our VOTES in 2021. BWEZANI tell your friend to pay retirees we want to buy land and cultivate. put aside bill 10 issue it is useless you are just decampaining yourselves further.
Under RB’s presidency with Caleb Fundanga and Situmbeko Musokotwane at the helm of Bank of Zambia and Ministry of Finance respectively,Zambia was always treated to good economic news home and abroad. Something even Alexander Chikwanda acknowledged in his inaugural speech as new Finance Minister.
Mr.President, we will take the call into farming as younger generation seriously. There is too much monocropping of maize as opposed to diversification.
HAZALUZA HAGAIN because he is UNELECTABLE!
Oh with the capital that you stole and enriched yourselves with? Don’t take us for mugs
Which capital naimwe ba low life. Playing a useless broken record. We know someone covered in the Panama Papers and it is not RB.
I find it very irritating when people like Rb advise the young to go into farming as thought it will solve their problems. Can RB explain how the young can make money from farming when there is load shedding of up to 20 hours.
It is of great importance for the Young people to do as advised by the former Republican President considering that plenty of Farming land is readily available. We can not all wait on the Government to provide Jobs for us but rather we can engage ourselves into small scale farming in order to make Zambia Food secure.
Its a great call !
@patriotic zambian ,How is Loadshedding associated with farming? Do crops need Electricity for them to Grow?
So just because we have power crisis and Economic unstability in Zambia does it now mean we can not source for other alternatives to sustain our families? We only have One Zambia and yet its everybody’s responsibility to bring up ideas to build our Nation In spite of our Political affiliations.
@The voice. Presently, Zambia has no strong infrastructure for alternative energy. my humble advice, recheck the systems requirements for entire value chain for agricultural commodities, and perhaps see the importance of energy in farming. cold chain distribution and storage for fresh produce would require sustained supply of fuel and electricity. Check the sections in most supermarkets, vegetables and fruits appear loss of freshness and shriveled! This translates into postharvest losses. Farmer only gets full benefits when produce is sold. One of the major preharvest activity is irrigation with strong input of energy.
You showed PF the way of depleting national reservs. It was never like that in the past.
MATHEMATICS PAPER 5
RB was not a charismatic leader and so is Edgar Changwe Lungu. What is the common denominator between the two?
Wise words Mr Banda. It is truly a great youth empowerment action. Youths of today should contribute and develop the agricultural sector instead of sitting and waiting for job opportunities to come to their doorstep and blame the Government when they don’t. Farming has the well-known strength of improving our economy, creating jobs and eliviating poverty.
There is no need to respond with negativity. Everything can’t be about your support for your party leader.
HE IS RIGHT. KIDS GET INTO FARMING.
The cause and start of the mess in Zambia. His son Henry still has to answer for his activities. As to advising young people to farm shall he provide the land to them? What a tool.
You put us in this mess with your wako ni wako u mambala
U and u r son hv to go through trial. u think u are clever. mulandu suwola
Mr RB, the best advice to give is to lead by example. If farming is easy wy hv u senior citizens run away frm it. RB survives on free govt salary and bribes. He ran away frm his farm in chipata. Kk had a big frm.did he ever stay there.no. he is also enjoying being looked after using free govt money.