Zambian famine turns into feast

[bemildred]

Lusaka, Zambia - Zambia's rapidly expanding agricultural sector is heading for a bumper year with plans for the country's first maize exports in over 10-years, Zambian Food Reserve Agency director, Frida Luhila, said on Thursday.

The planned maize exports of 400 000 metric tonnes will be the first since the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy came to power in 1991.

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Small-scale farmers, who produce 80% of the country's food, do not have their own storage sheds and cannot therefore store their surplus produce.

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Bumper crop result of subsidies and innovation

Zambia's bumper crop has been a result of reintroduction of agricultural subsides in 2001. It's also attributed to a number of technological innovations like mixed farming, conservation farming and a diversification programme which brought in the production of pulses and legumes as well as millet and sweet potatoes, as food crops.

News24

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. That's great news.

And I hope this offsets some of the loss of agricultural production in Zimbabwe as a result of Mugabe's land reform, which has been more about raw political power for him than justice and prosperity for the black population.

[bemildred]

2. Perhaps some of the neighbors will take a hint from this.

They all seem to want to buy the crop.