Agricultural investments begin to bear fruit

Attempts to attract agricultural
investment to Zambia are
starting to bear fruit.
South Africa’s Astral Foods has
opened a R76-million chicken
hatchery.
Roedolf Steenkamp, Astral’s
managing director, says the hatchery
and breeder farm will initially produce
120 000 day-old chicks a week, but
could hatch up to a million as demand
for broilers in the region increases.
He said Zambia was strategically
positioned to service the rest of
Southern Africa.
Zambian authorities say just 10%
of the country’s arable land is being
cultivated.
This results in widespread hunger,
according to the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations
(FAO).
It says “an astonishing 45% of
Zambia’s 11.5 million population
– or 5.2 million individuals, are
undernourished”. Some 50% of
children are malnourished to the
extent that it stunts their growth, while
20% are underweight.
The life expectancy in Zambia is
just 37 years.
Agriculture is also an important
foreign exchange earner.
In May this year, Agriculture and
Cooperatives Deputy Minister Allan
Mbewe announced that the country
had produced a total of 30 million
kilograms of tobacco valued at about
US$64-million.
“This is the great achievement for
our agriculture in Zambia and in line
with the policy of making agriculture
the engine of our economy, creation
of employment and generation of
foreign exchange,” Mbewe is quoted
as saying.
Tobacco accounts for about 3% of
the Zambian gross domestic product
(GDP), while agriculture as a whole
makes up 23% of GDP.
The FAO values Zambian
agricultural exports at US$201-million
a year, and imports at US$97-million.
Mbewe acknowledged that the
biggest challenge to farming was
the cost of production – which
Government would continue to
address.
The Tobacco Association of
Zambia (TAZ) cut the floor laying
charges for tobacco farmers who keep
their crop in warehouses by 50% to
help reduce costs incurred by the
farmers.