Conservation agro most effective - Minister
O R ATIO a riculture is an effecti e method for ambia to increase producti ity for farmers, A riculture ichael atambo has said.
Mr Katambo said empirical evidence had shown that the yields of farmers that practice conservation agriculture were by far better than those that did not.
He was speaking at conservation agriculture indaba in Lusaka.
“Our policies as Government reflect this position and it should be noted that the Seventh National Development Plan and the Second National Agricultural Policy have both recognised the importance of conservation agriculture to strengthen the position of farmers in Zambia,” he said.
Mr. Katambo said despite the policy framework that was in place to support conservation agriculture, only about 300,000 farmers from a total of about 1.5 million registered farmers were practicing conservation agriculture.
Therefore, he said, the indaba could not have come at a better time as it would give renewed motivation to resolve the low adoption of conservation agriculture.
“I have been reliably informed that one of the outputs expected from this indaba, is the development of an action plan on conservation agriculture.
“It is my strong belief that the action plan that you will develop will become the basis for government and stakeholder cooperation in the area of conservation agriculture scaling up in Zambia,” he said.
Mr Katambo said farmers wanted to have a good and assured market for their produce, both locally and in neighbouring countries.
To this effect, he said, Government signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate formalized trade in agricultural commodities with the Democratic Republic of Congo in September, last year.
Eight countries have so far ratified the agreement with six remaining to attain the required threshold for the agreement to enter into force.
Namibia is the latest to ratify the TFTA agreement after the country’s High Commissioner to Zambia Siyave Haindongo deposited the Instrument of atification to the Chair of the Tripartite Task Force Chileshe Kapwepwe, who is COMESA Secretary General.
“Namibia now joins Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi and Botswana in the roll of honour of countries that have ratified the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement,” Ms Kapwepwe said.
She said seven countries were in advanced stages of the ratification process, namely, Comoros, Eswatini, Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Ms Kapwepwe said the seven countries were expected to complete the ratification process before the end of this year paving the way for its implementation.
“With the impending ratification by the seven countries, it is my firm belief, that the threshold of 14 ratifications for the TFTA to enter into force, is now clearly in sight,” Ms Kapwepwe said.
She said several rounds of negotiations spanning five years had been taking place with the Tripartite Council of Ministers having earlier set April 2019 as the deadline to ratify the agreement.
She said the TFTA brings together 28 countries that are members of COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
And Mr Haindongo said Namibia was now ready to implement the TFTA having completed the required processes.
He said Implementation of the TFTA was critical in addressing key constraints to trade in the region, namely; the structure of production and the composition of exports in the member/partner States.
FARMERS urgently require irrigation skills especially with effects of climate change affecting the country, North-Western Provincial Agricultural Coordinator Derrick Simukanzye has said.
Mr Simukanzye urged small-scale farmers to acquire knowledge in irrigation in order to beat the effects of climate change such as drought.
He was happy that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was implementing itrrigation project in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture in the province.
JICA was carrying the project through its Expansion of Community Based Smallholder Irrigation Development project (E –COBSI).
Mr Simukanzye also urged the farmers and other stakeholders to acquire knowledge and skills so that they could transfer to other farmers.
He was speaking in a speech read for him by Principal Agricultural Officer Simbarashe Mubambwe during the Kick-Off Training for Central and North-Western provinces in Masaiti yesterday.
He also emphasised that the E-COBSI could also enhance crop diversification through irrigation and climate resilience.
”Let me also take this opportunity to emphasize that crop diversification can also be supported through irrigation and climate resilience,” Mr Simukanzye.
And ECOBSI Team Leader, Tatsuya Ieizumi, said the project had adopted the Smallholder Horticultural Empowerment Promotion approach -SHEP in its E-COBSI activities to boost farmers’ production through irrigation, market and nutrition there by increasing household incomes and food security.
Meanwhile, one of the facilitators who is also Senior Marketing Development Officer for Northwestern Province Alick Chirwa challenged the farmers to utilize the SHEP approach to share the market research, production and the market concept with farmers.
- NAIS