IMPROVING ECONOMY WITHIN OUR GRASP

Sir,

We need to clothe ourselves with optimism that doesn’t depend on the circumstances around us. In fact, we need to be driven by a desire to make it no matter what. That said, the writing is on the wall with respect to how things are likely to pen out in the immediate future. Already there are concerns about poor harvest down east, with crops already scorched by the sun, in a year when we were promised a lot of rain. How this has come about I don’t know. This goes to show that weather conditions are going to continue to be elusive no matter how hard we try to forecast it.  What this is telling us is that we are not immune to perils of nature; and as such, whatever we do that has to depend on the weather conditions must have insurance taken out against such disasters. Costly as it is, it is a prerogative to take out cover in order to protect our crops and our ventures in the event of natural disasters such as storms and of course the scorching sun that ravages crops.

Government on its part, while driving the agenda of food security, must seriously think about turning the likes of the National Maize Corporation and NAMBoard into producers of agricultural products; instead of being agencies focusing only on regulation and storage of produce. They must be made to add value. Imagine how much employment we would create by turning much of the government farms and other community farms lying fallow to grow maize. That would be staggering! I know some people would argue this would be outside the mandate of these institutions to do so,  but I would argue that the institutions were not made for legislation, but the legislation was made for them – meaning the legislation could be amended at the drop of a hat to suit our changed mandate. If government continues encouraging farmers to grow maize to sustain food security, it will not happen in our lifetime because growers are influenced by profitability realized from growing those crops. And maize prices cannot offer much incentive to growers; and as such, it would be best that maize is grown by government agencies.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: