FARM BLOCS TO SPUR RURAL ECONOMY

 

Today we feature an article on farm blocs by my junior colleague, JAMES KUNDA, who writes that:

The Government has embarked on a programme to open up viable farm blocs in various parts of the country for people to be involved in primary production of crops and promote value addition after harvest.

Through the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), Government is implementing a number of strategies including courting of local and investors to implement the concept which also aims at supporting economic diversification away from mining.

So far, Luena farm bloc in Kawambwa district of Luapula Province and Nansanga farm bloc in Serenje district in Central province have been identified as areas that contain portions of land degazetted for the development of farm blocs.

Four investors have since expressed interest to invest in the Luena farm bloc which has the total area of 100,000 hectares of land, with the Government planning to run the facility as an out-grower scheme.

According to Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Chanda Kasolo, the core-venture has 10,000 hectares of land, two major farms of 5000 hectares each, 14 commercial farms of 2000 hectares each and 900 small holderfarms of 50 hectare each.

The four investors among them Sakiza Spinning Limited of Kitwe and Senekai Group from South Africa have shown interest in investing in the farm bloc.

The investors who have already been to view the area are however yet to formalise the application processes before they can be considered.

                                                 

    Kasolo

Luena bloc has the potential to contribute significantly to the country’s economy because it is ideal for vegetation which in any form can be sold locally and exported.

ZDA recently announced that it would re-advertise the more than 17,000-hectare Nansanga farm bloc for private sector participation.

“The core venture, which is 17,500 hectares of land, will be advertised and we will soon invite private sector partners,” said ZDA director general Patrick Chisanga.

All in all, the implementation of farm blocs is strategic because Zambia posses enough arable land, classified as medium to high potential, ideal for production of grain, vegetables and cereal.

Apart from having a friendly rainfall pattern, Zambia enjoys 40 per cent of the water bodies in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region and this enhances the country’s ability to support all-year round agricultural production.

Zambia is in dire need of innovative concepts that will help the country stimulate growth in agriculture production to improve the country’s Non Traditional Exports (NTE’s).

As at December 31, 2013, NTE’s stood at US$3.6 billion representing an increase of 27 per cent from the previous year.

Despite the improvement which can be categorically described as good, the Zambian economy has remained reliant on the mining sector with copper contributing the bulk of exports.

This calls for extensive strategies to empower the private sector that must in turn seize the opportunities in the export industry and expand their productive capacities from the farm blocs.

Government thus needs to source money that will be used to support farm blocs just like is being done with the value chain clusters under the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC).

CEEC has already covered a number of districts through the value chain identification project supporting a number of local entrepreneurs in sectors such as aquaculture and peanut butter production.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has been talking of issuing a $1billion Eurobond to implement the National Agriculture Plan (NAP).

Through the NAP, Government can provide financing to cooperatives that the farmers will have formed while operationalising the farm blocs and identify specific projects for value addition.

It is important to stress that agriculture is a viable economic venture that can promote trade between countries and Zambia already enjoys the market share when it comes to agricultural exports in the SADC region.

With enhanced performance from the farm blocs, it would be much easier to penetrate other lucrative markets on the African continent and beyond.

There are a lot of economic benefits that result from enhanced trade inter-country trade such as the recent quoting of the Kwacha on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

This will strengthen the currency against economic shocks and stabilize the rate of inflation thereby keeping commodity prices within optimal levels.

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