Zambia’s untapped agricultural potential is in the hands of young farmers, according to a study conducted by Felix Kwame Yeboah and TS Jayne of Michigan State University.The study, which included six sub-Saharan countries, found that the mean age of farmers in Zambia was around 39 years.
“It should be clear that maintaining a sufficiently dynamic and youthful workforce in farming is fortunately not among the region’s many agricultural challenges.
“What is missing, however, is a critical mass of skilled young Africans with access to finance and knowhow to drive productivity growth in farming and related value chains,” the study says.This will open up new opportunties for the logistics sector, as agriculture has the potential to wean the Zambian economy off its reliance on copper for foreign exchange.
“Despite 40 million hectares of arable land, an abundance of groundwater resources, nutrient-rich soil, and low population density, Zambia’s agriculture sector has not yet reached its full potential,” according to a World Bank review of the country’s agricultural sector.Of the 58% of land suitable for agricultural production, only 14% is currently under cultivation.
