Posted on April, 29, 2016 at 09:59 am
By Hope Bwalya
Zambia's favourable agricultural policies and the thriving private sector will enable the country to become the food basket of the region, a European Union (EU) report on support to agriculture under the 11 European Development Fund (EDF) has said.
The report indicates that it is highly possible for Zambia to be the region's food basket because of the favourable agricultural policies, a thriving private sector and the entrepreneurial culture.
"The country has encouraging policy reforms that have seen the piloting of the e-voucher under the Farmers Input Support Programme (private sector participation) and the launch of Zambian Commodity Exchange.
"The country has duty-free access to regional, wider African and the USA markets. Zambia has the opportunity to become the bread basket of the region," the EU says.
The report states that the country should take advantage of the abundant natural resources and the favourable sub-tropical climate which supports wider crop production.
It says farmers should invest in irrigation infrastructure in order to boost their production, especially now that the southern African region is facing challenges in food supplies.
According to the report, diversification of crops and better storage systems should be put in place to help fight poverty and malnutrition in the country and the region.
There should be promotion of value-addition and value-chain so that the farmers' products could be appreciated.
"For the agriculture sector to become the driver of economic diversification and poverty alleviation, some challenges need to be overcome, such as the challenge of lack of irrigation infrastructure and diversification from maize, as 83 per cent of rural households grow maize as a single crop.
"The other challenges are inappropriate inputs, inefficient value chains and insufficient value-addition," the report says.
Deforestation and poor farming practices were cited as a hindrance to the development of agriculture in Zambia.
Source: Times of Zambia