Foreign investors critical to agro sector growth

Foreign investors critical to agro sector growth 

By Kakoma Chayinda

ZAMBIA’S agriculture sector has undergone significant growth over the years attracting many local and international players in investments.

The country boasts of about 38.39 million hectares of arable land, presenting opportunities for continued investments in crop and seed production, fisheries and livestock, processing, agri-technologies and market linkages within and outside the country.

During the recently held inaugural Mkushi Agri-Expo in Central Province, President Hakainde Hichilema, in a speech read on his behalf by Agriculture minister Reuben Mtolo Phiri said the country is ready to accommodate foreign investors wishing to invest in its agriculture sector.

“Government places agriculture as the engine of the economy, and if you are a farmer looking for a stable country to invest in, come and invest here because we aim to make farming support the country’s GDP [gross domestic product],” Hichilema said.

He explained that currently, the country is one of the biggest exporters of seed in African with an annual production of eighty thousand metric tonnes.

“We use 50,000 metric tonnes of seed per year, but produce up to 80,000 metric tonnes making Zambia the indisputable biggest exporter of seed in Africa, this number will go up with a new seed plant set to produce 75 metric tonnes in Kabwe District,” Hichilema said.

He said the Ministry of Agriculture is implementing the Compressive Agriculture Transformation Support Program (CATSP) meant to transform the agriculture value chain in order to improve the country’s food security.

Hichilema said CATSP is a broader approach the ministry is using to grow the sector through programmes such as the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) and the Sustainable Agriculture Financing Facility (SAFF) among other programmes of the ministry.

“We are unhappy with the contribution of the agriculture sector to the country’s gross domestic product. Hence, we are now implementing CATSP which will improve the Agri-value chain in research, farming, post-harvest, processing and marketing of the Agro-products,” he said.

Hichilema hailed the organisers of the Mkushi Agri-Expo for bringing sector players together and said such events are important for small-scale farmers to gain immense knowledge through interactions with experts and that it also helps to market the agriculture potential of the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Mkushi District Commissioner Jonathan Kapungwe said the district is expecting a good harvest following an improvement in the rain season for the 2024/2025 farming season.

Kapungwe said commercial farmers who were engaged by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) under the early maize programme were expected to start delivering maize to depots in the district.

“Mkushi district received good rains and we are hopeful that we shall have a better harvest this year. Different commercial farmers were engaged by FRA for the early maize and we are happy that they will begin to supply it soon, which will increase our reserves,” Mr Kapungwe said.

One of the exhibitors, Greg McGrengor, the chief commercial officer for the United Capital Fertiliser said his firm is this year expected to start the production of 300,000 tonnes of top dressing fertiliser to ensure the availability of fertiliser all year-round.

McGrengor thanked government for its enabling environment that supports investments in the agriculture sector adding that United Capital Fertiliser is currently producing five thousand tons of MPK fertiliser.

“United Capital Fertiliser has made significant progress in the production of fertiliser and we have another exciting story where we will soon start producing energy that we hope to be feeding in the national grid through our power plant,” McGrengor announced.

The event’s organiser, Bobby Singh, explained that the idea behind the Mkushi Agri-Expo was to bring together agriculture sector players to network and market their products and services so as to create sustainable growth in the sector.

It was clear from the success of the inaugural exposition that Zambia is poised for transformation in the agriculture sector, evidenced from the number of exhibitors that included seed manufacturers, mechanisation suppliers, processors, insurance and financial institutions. –NAIS