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Zambia has presented its Country Food and Agriculture Delivery Compact within the context of the 8th National Development Plan (8NDP) to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The country also presented its initiatives under the the Comprehensive Agriculture Programme (CASP), in which it focused on developing farm blocks and strengthening and improving delivery of extension services among many other matters.
This is according to President Hakainde Hichilema on his official social media handle shared on Thursday after discussions with the AfDB vice president in charge of Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation, Solomon Quaynor.
“We outlined our vision on how we would deploy the resources provided for by our cooperating partners.
“With this kind of investment, Zambia should meet the required production targets and achieve self-sufficiency that would ultimately eliminate poverty, hunger and malnutrition in Zambia and on the Continent,” Hichilema said.
He said included in the Zambian delegation were three wheat farmers from Mkushi who were incorporated, for the purpose of exposure in the International wheat market, arising from the country’s drive to promote private sector initiatives in food security.
Meanwhile, Hichilema said the delegation was delighted to have participated in the High Level Round Table discussion with fellow Heads of State on the Nations’ Agricultural visions and Food Security on the Continent.
According to Hichilema, his delegation submitted that agriculture be defined in a broader and comprehensive sense than only described around the realm of growing crops.
“Components such as transportation for distribution from surplus areas to deficit ones as well as the genetics, should be part of the agricultural process.
“We encouraged the participants to appreciate that the private sector was an integral part of the agricultural sector and that they should be encouraged to leverage this field in order to maximise the growth of the business,” he said.
He also appreciated the gesture by Zambian residents in Senegal who waited for long hours at the hotel to greet the delegation.
“We reminded them that they were our Ambassadors in Senegal, and implored them to therefore be law abiding in all their activities in this great country in which they are domiciled,” Hichilema said.
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