Head of the CAADP in the NEPAD agency Martin Bwalya said
although slow, Zambia’s implementation of CAADP initiative has
had challenges but at the same time there has been some notable engagement and
dialogue on what is the value of CAADP in advancing agriculture in Zambia.
He was speaking during a teleconference held after the
US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington recently.
“Nonetheless, there has been increased investments,
and some small-scale farmers are organizing themselves to produce sugar, cotton
and rice. Following Malabo, an irrigation programme to increase land under
irrigation by half-a million hectares a year in the next 10 years - Zambia is
one of the countries selected for this programme,” Mr Bwalya said.
Mr Bwalya said one of the notable invest is the
Kaleya Smallholder farmer initiative in Mazabuka where farmers have come
together to grow sugarcane which is later sold to Zambia Sugar.
He said the programme that Zambia has in terms of its
national investment plans (NAIP) is something that can deliver results adding
that what is needed is for all stakeholders to rally behind the NAIPs.
He said agriculture was Africa’s solution to long
term social and economic development, youth unemployment, gender inequality and
climate change.
And commenting on the pledge of by African leaders to invest more in agriculture by
allocating at least 10 percent of their national budgets to the agriculture
sector, Mr Bwalya said Zambia was on track.
At
the African Union summit in Maputo in 2003, African leaders pledged to invest
more in agriculture by allocating at least 10 percent of their national budgets
to the sector, to adopt sound farming development policies and to achieve at
least six percent growth.
Only Burundi, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Senegal,
Zambia and Zimbabwe have met or surpassed the 10 percent target in one or more
years since 2003.
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