Zambia reviews policy to address small-scale farmers needs

By DOREEN NAWA
ZAMBIA is reviewing the 2004-2015 national agriculture policy to address the needs of small-scale farmers countrywide, Zambia's minister of Agriculture and Livestock Wylbur Simuusa has said.

The minister was speaking in Lusaka during a round-table workshop organised by Government in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“The review of the Agriculture Policy 2004-2015 is being done in order to address the needs of the small-scale farmers, taking into account the emerging trends in the sector such as environment and climate change, decentralisation, globalisation and changes in the legal environment,” Mr Simuusa said.
He also said there is need for credible investment to operationalise the national agriculture policy and to reduce poverty in rural areas.
And Mr Simuusa said Government has prioritised agriculture on its agenda despite the challenges that the sector is facing.
He said there is need to address shortcomings in the agriculture sector to make it viable.
“There are several challenges that have constrained the performance of the agriculture sector and its contribution to poverty reduction but I wish to say that Government and several other cooperating partners have made efforts aimed at transforming the sector,” Mr Simuusa said.

Like many other developing countries, Zambia too faces several challenges in the agriculture sector such as poor infrastructure, storage facilities especially in rural areas where agriculture is the mainstay of most communities.

Other challenges include Low investment, lack of access to affordable credit and limited access to labour saving technologies by small scale farmers.

Earlier, Brian Baldwin, senior advisor at IFAD said lack of capital investment had continued affecting the growth of the small scale farmers in the country.

“The objective of the workshop is to have an opportunity to discuss the main findings and recommendations from Zambia country programme evaluation and reflect on their implications,” Mr Baldwin said.

Officer-in-charge, independence office of evaluation of IFAD, Kees Tuinenburg said even though IFAD was a relatively small financial partner in Zambia ,the country programme had made an important contribution to the development of agriculture and rural development.

Since 1981 IFAD had provided financing to the tune of US$188.5 million to support farmers across the country.

Mr Tuinenburg said cooperation between IFAD and government plays a central role for a more effective and efficient use of the government systems.