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.