By CHATULA KANGALI –
THE Zambia Forest and Forestry Corporation (ZAFFICO) is next year targeting to increase the Kawambwa and Shiwangandu plantation by 400 and 300 hectares respectively.
Currently, the corporation has a plantation of about 1200 hectares in Kawambwa and about 1000 hectares in Shiwangandu in Muchinga and Luapula provinces respectively.
Corporation secretary Morgan Mukwasa said in an interview recently that the institution was targeting to plant 400 hectares in Kawambwa and about 300 hectares in Shiwangandu  districts.
Mr Mukwasa said that ZAFFICO would continue to expand its plantations in order to meet the growing demand of timber on the local market.
“We are expanding our plantation, we are targeting to increase the hectarage of our new  plantation from 300 to 400  hectares in a year, provided  enough  resources, we can increase further,” he said.
Mr Mukwasa said that  the  company  was  failing  to  meet  the growing  demand  for timber  on the local market and that it had since rationed the sale  of the  product  to saw millers.
He said that the corporation had four other plantations on the copperbelt namely Dolla Hill, Ichimpe, Chati and Lamba covering about 50,000 hectares.
Mr Mukwasa said that ZAFFICO is currently establishing a pole treatment plant at Ichimpe forest in kalulushi which will be the company’s first value addition project.
He said that the pole treatment plant will be using eucalyptus trees and that it was expected to be   commissioned by the first quarter of 2017.