Stop eating maize, it’s stock feed: First Lady

Source: Stop eating maize, it’s stock feed: First Lady – DailyNews Live

Bernard Chiketo      20 February 2017

BUHERA – President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, has said Zimbabweans must
stop eating maize – the country’s staple food – claiming the grain is
stock feed unfit for human consumption.

Officially opening a girls’ dormitory named after her at Hande High School
in Buhera, just a few kilometres from where she had curiously donated
maize at her rally on Friday, Grace said she was no longer eating sadza –
a cooked maize-meal that is not only common in Zimbabwe, but across
southern Africa.

“Maize was not meant for human consumption at all, but as stock feed.
Isn’t it so (Agriculture) minister (Joseph) Made?” she said.

“It’s better to eat millet sadza,” she suggested.

“I have long stopped eating it after I gained the knowledge. Knowledge is
power. The food to eat is brown sadza, that is what our forefathers would
eat,” Grace said.

Oddly, she later donated 300 tonnes of maize and 120 tonnes of rice among
other basic goods.

This comes as the Manicaland District has produced a very poor crop, in
spite of the good rains the usually arid area received this season.

“The soil is not fertile and it’s not meant for maize. People here should
try to venture into small grains which grow well in this part of the
country,” the First Lady said.

Earlier on, State minister for Manicaland, Mandi Chimene, had said locals
needed to be encouraged to dump maize production due to perpetual crop
failure.

“Maize is not your crop here and you need to consider migrating to small
grain production. We have seen some fields with very poor crop. I hope
amai (Grace Mugabe), they will listen to you if you tell them yourself,”
she said.

Successful maize farming in the district has always been a long shot and
has always been a perpetual exercise in futility.

At least 50 percent of the district is in natural farming region five, 35
percent in region four and 15 percent is in region three.