Zambia's government, in partnership with China, plans to install over 4,000 solar powered hammer mills nationally in a bid to curb rising mealie meal prices.

This will be the first time that the country will use solar power technology within the maize grinding process.

The solar powered hammer mills will be supplied by China Non-Ferrous Corporation, a Zambia-based Chinese mining company.

The deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Grayford Monde said the Zambian government has been forced to seek assistance from China because of the escalating mealie meal prices in the country, as millers are privately owned and determine their own prices.

He said the solar power technology will make it easy for the hammer mills to operate, even in remote areas which are not connected to the national grid.

Monde, who refused to disclose the cost of the hammer mills, told ITWeb Africa that the Zambian government wants to stablise the cost of mealie meal prices in the country in order to protect consumers from being exploited by millers.

Over the last month authorities and millers have been at loggerheads over mealie meal prices.

The Zambian government announced a price reduction of K2, 000 (approximately R5), but the millers did not comply and, in fact, increased the price of the commodity by the same amount.

However, the government has insisted millers comply because they are purchasing subsidised maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), a government owned grain marketing company.