By KENNEDY MUPSENI –
Mufulira Municipal Council (MMC) has designated about 6,000 hectares of land for smallholder farming blocs in the border district.
Publish What You Pay Copperbelt chapter has been complaining that limited access to land was delaying economic diversification of the Copperbelt Province as most land is vested in mining companies.
However, MMC assistant public relations manager, Melvin Mukela said the council was committed to drive the diversification process on the Copperbelt.
“There are about 6,000 hectares of land which have been turned into smallholder farming blocs to encourage the growth of agriculture in the district, looking at the potential of the mining town,” Mr Mukela said in an interview in Mufulira at the weekend.
He said about 300 families occupying Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) land would also be given some patches of land for development.
The council has since started advertising farm plots to members of the public.
The local authority is also working with the department of agriculture in the demarcation and surveying of the Njili forest where farm plots would be established.
Njili forest was recently degazetted by the Government to increase access to farmland in the mining town.
The area is strategically located in terms of exposure to the market being near the Mukambo border.
