ON Wednesday morning, Mr WM Leggate, the chairman of the Food Production Committee, met representatives of egg producers when he stressed the seriousness of the position, pointing out that at the most conservative estimate maize supplies would be exhausted by the end of February unless the Government could obtain imports. If the Government could not do this, in adequate quantities, he said it was the opinion of the committee that maize for pigs and poultry should be considerably curtailed. Mr WA Bull of Umtali, said that though he had gone out of maize production some years ago at the request of the Government, he was quite willing to grow it again this season, and he would be willing to cull half his flock now if he would be allowed to keep the balance right through. He would sooner do this than “live under the axe” of future food restriction. In a discussion on substitute foods, several representatives considered them to be almost useless as it took two months for the fowls to accustom themselves to the change. It was generally agreed that culling 50 percent of flocks would not reduce egg production by anything like half, on account of low flock average. Mr Leggate informed the meeting that the Food Production Committee had recommended to the Government that it should fix prices for “mhunga” and other native grains to enable them to come freely into consumption. Pressed for definite advice, Mr Leggate said, “We shall endeavour to get explicit instructions as soon as possible as to what you have to do.” When asked about the possibility of importing maize from the Argentine he said: “Operational pilots in England get 1:1 eggs per week. Would we be right in asking for ships to bring maize from the Argentina so that we may keep up our present standard of feeding?” Multi-grain production is not only good for human consumption, but it also benefits the poultry and livestock industry, through increase of the production of stock feeds. Farmers should also consider grain and stock feed production at their farms for their livestock. Equipment is now available to allow farmers to do their own stock feed production using available grain, to reduce costs of buying stock feeds. Adequate food production ensures that animals also get a fair share, as they also depend on farm-produced cereals for protein and carbohydrates. Source: www: /www.herald.co.zw
