Zambia to grow maize all year round

LUSAKA – Zambia planned to grow maize throughout the year in the country’s vast wetlands and aimed to increase output by roughly 40 per cent to 2 million tons in the 2004/05 season, Mundia Sikatana, the agriculture and co-operatives minister, said yesterday.

He said three wetland areas had been opened for agriculture and both foreign and local farmers would be free to set up farms in the areas to grow cash crops such as maize, wheat and tobacco throughout the year. This was in addition to the 100 000ha of land opened in central Zambia in May.”The government has a programme for growing crops throughout the year in wetlands, valleys and the traditional farming areas,” Sikatana said.The minister said farmers would start growing winter maize through irrigation in April in Zambia’s valleys, where the weather was relatively hot, starting in 2005 and they would begin to harvest it in August.Sikatana said the government was taking advantage of the settling in Zambia of foreign farmers to grow maize all year round for exports to mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.The government would turn the state food reserve agency, which buys maize from farmers who cannot export on their own, into an autonomous institution, Sikatana added.The minister said the food agency would be responsible for all maize purchases for export and for strategic national reserves.Sikatana said that preliminary indications were that this year’s maize harvest would exceed 1,4 million tons, up from 1,2 million tons in the previous season.-Nampa-ReutersThis was in addition to the 100 000ha of land opened in central Zambia in May.”The government has a programme for growing crops throughout the year in wetlands, valleys and the traditional farming areas,” Sikatana said.The minister said farmers would start growing winter maize through irrigation in April in Zambia’s valleys, where the weather was relatively hot, starting in 2005 and they would begin to harvest it in August. Sikatana said the government was taking advantage of the settling in Zambia of foreign farmers to grow maize all year round for exports to mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.The government would turn the state food reserve agency, which buys maize from farmers who cannot export on their own, into an autonomous institution, Sikatana added.The minister said the food agency would be responsible for all maize purchases for export and for strategic national reserves.Sikatana said that preliminary indications were that this year’s maize harvest would exceed 1,4 million tons, up from 1,2 million tons in the previous season.-Nampa-Reuters