By Scoop Reporter
Minister of Agriculture Mtolo Phiri says Zambia is poised to produce more food through the farm block initiative adopted by the New Dawn Government which will see a million hectare of land under utilisation.
Mr. Phiri says it does not make sense that only a small portion of land is being utilized out of the 75 million hectares of land by about 20 million people hence the decision by Government to zone the country into 10 farm blocks in each province to enhance productivity.
He said the agriculture sector must be backed by good policies of exporting the excess so that farmers can get value for their products through a readily available market while the country benefits through foreign exchange.
“We have adopted an agriculture policy which is very simple to understand. Zambia is zoned in 10 provinces and what we have done is that we have identified virgin land which we have carefully selected with good soils and water. We have adopted a 100 thousand hectares in each province and we are looking at an immediate productivity of a million hectares.
“The beauty is that whatever we produce has to be married with good policies by the Government of allowing exports. We opened up our corners and never ever again, are we going to close our borders for exports because if you produce and you only have 20 million people, who will consume the surplus that you produce? So, we have to open our borders for exports,” Mr. Phiri said.
We are moving in the right direction but we need also to add value to our farm products.
Yes too many agricultural policies were shelved by the previous governments. Hope the UPND will walk the talk in the agricultural sector.
It is a plan in the right direction
Balance of trade
Agriculture is the way to go because it creates many jobs