By CHRISTINE KUNDA –
ZAMBIA’S small-scale farmers produce the bulk of the country’s food needs – roughly 80 per cent. However, there has not been much investment in agricultural produce.
When farmers and entrepreneurs turn raw agricultural produce like vegetables or grains into a product of higher value like jam or bread, their income is improved. Value addition also contributes to community and rural economic development as well as enhancing food choices for consumers.
Further, value-addition provides competitive opportunity as it creates value-added producer-owned businesses.
However, the country is faced with lack of industries to enhance value-addition for some agricultural produce such as tomatoes, mangoes, pineapple, groundnuts. As a result, a lot of agriculture produce go to waste.
For instance, tomatoes worth thousands of Kwacha usually go to waste at Lusaka’s Soweto Market.
Moreover, over the years, Zambia has been producing a lot of mangos which end up being wasted.
Tones of mangoes litter the ground and decay due to lack of and capacity for procession.
It is for this reason that Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recently held an inception and value chain selection workshop to facilitate the official launch of the inception of the “Incentivising Public and Private Sector Investments Project” (IPPIP) in Zambia.
The project aims to identify the value chain most suitable for upgrading, with the objective of indentifying end-market opportunities and innovation potential, creating youth employment and minimising food losses and waste.
Speaking during the launch of the project FAO country representative Anne Percy Filippini said value chain selection is an important initial step in value chain development for raw agricultural produce.
Ms Filippini explained that the some of the value chains that were indentified included aquaculture, diary, maize, onion, pineapple, potatoes, soya beans, sunflower and wheat.
“Understanding agricultural value chain is vital in order to indentify key constraints and opportunities for upgrading to avoid food loss and waste reduction,” she said.
Ms Fillippini said FAO is working with Government to devise ways of encouraging the private sector to invest more in Zambia’s agriculture sector.
The IPPIP programme falls under a four-year US$2 million programme entitled “Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Food Systems Development”, which FAO is implementing in 13 different countries around the world, and Zambia happens to be one of the five African countries in which it is being implemented.
Africa Development Bank (ADB) President Dr Akinwumi Adesina said agriculture is a business and it should be treated as such.
Dr Adesina said investment in agribusiness should assume greater priority because not investing in agriculture has serious economic consequences in terms of low economic earning potential posing huge loses to the economy.
He said it makes sense to encourage agriculture based industry to convert its agriculture power into wealth through value addition to local produce.
Africa should be ready to treat agriculture as a business and unlock its full potential of Africa to diversify African economies.
This is a clarion call to accelerate agribusiness that will reduce food import bills.
But for this to happen, a new approach must be taken of how to make the most of agriculture on the continent.
Dr Adesina said there is no doubt that by investing in agricultural transformation and agro-allied industrialisation, the future will be bright for Africa incomes.
Africa’s increasingly profitable agribusinesses will pay taxes and economies will excel.
“It is high time we realised that agriculture is key in wealth creation and we must drive agricultural transformation across Africa. We can turn Africa into a net food exporter and move
Africa to the top of the global value chains, so let us rise up and do it,” he said.
Former Minister of Agriculture Michael Katambo said Government was working on a full value chain and creating additional business opportunities in the areas of storage, transport, processing, marketing and packaging of agricultural produce.
“The shift from primary production to modern integrated agribusiness will provide lucrative opportunities to many smallholder farmers.
Lucrative business that can greatly contribute to the country’s economic development must be fully maximised by adding value to the agriculture produce,” he said.
The shift from primary production to modern integrated agribusiness will provide lucrative opportunities to many smallholder farmers, as well as creating jobs for the country.
Value-addition in agriculture has been touted as the solution to the problems facing farmers and rural residents.
Experts say if farmers get to add value to their produce through processing, there will be an increase in income and reduce financial stress which will lead to the revitalisation of rural communities.
Full value chain for agriculture produce in the country should be at the peak of the agenda for various stakeholders.
It is undeniable that a fast rate of development in agriculture production and investment offers progressive outlook as well as increased motivation for development.
Agriculture remains a major contributor to Zambia’s economy contributing about 13 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Investing in value addition to Zambia’s agricultural sector will help create economic growth.
