CSC board fails to secure appointment

CSC board members recently told a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture that government had shunned them after the Minister, Joseph Made and his deputy, Paddy Zhanda, who is responsible for livestock production, were yet to meet them, four years after their appointment.

The failure to secure an appointment with the minister and his deputy has resulted in the company failing to come up with a strategy to turnaround its fortunes. CSC needs $80million to turnaround its fortunes.

Meanwhile, government needs to consider disposing of some prime assets of the Cold Storage Company to set up a fund and commission charged with development, driving productivity and attracting foreign investment into agriculture.

The fund which will be administered by the agricultural development commission, would, among other functions, subsidise cost drivers in agriculture and its value chain, carry out farm audits and delimitations, compensate displaced farmers for capital improvements and set up an agricultural commodities exchange.

Further, the fund and the commission would be responsible for financing the Grain Marketing Board to pay farmers in time and setting up a fertiliser manufacturer to make the fertiliser available cheaply while exporting the excess.