Zambian Agritech Expo continues breaking new grounds 

Tue, 02 May 2017 10:51:04 +0000

By BENNIE MUNDANDO

ZAMBIA’s multi-award winning Agritech Expo has continued to break new grounds by attracting both local and international participation and this year’s mega exhibition underscored its mantle as the second largest agriculture initiative in Africa, only beaten by South Africa.

After banging two coveted awards at the AAXO ROAR organiser and exhibitor awards in Johannesburg, South Africa, as the best trade and consumer exhibition and distinction in social responsibility, organisers of this year’s showpiece left nothing to chance and ensured that the event attracted more people, and more so, exhibiters from within and outside the country.  The Golden Valley Agriculture Research Trust (GART) in Chisamba was once again a hive of activity from 27-29 April, 2017 as the expo once again rolled back to life with free interactive workshops offering practical advice as well as live demonstrations to help farmers combat challenges such as the armyworms, explore new technologies such as aquaculture as well as learning from experts on improving efficiency of operations and yields on their farms.

The expo, which started four years ago with just above 30,000 square metres of exhibition space, this year romped to an amazing 70,000 square metres of land, increased foreign pavilions for both local and international exhibitors, and an overwhelming visitor turn-out.

Last year, the event drew a record-breaking attendance of 17 605 visitors but the event this drew more crowds with seven international pavilions and more small-scale, emerging and commercial farmers participating and showcased latest farming products and services.

The three-day expo boasted of international pavilions from Germany, Zimbabwe, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the UK, and France.

Speaking when he officially opened the expo, President Edgar Lungu said Zambia will continue investing in research and technological development to enable farmers adopt modern farming practices.

President Lungu observed that Zambia was among 60 countries which were endowed with enough arable land and abundant water resources and a good climate and that there was no excuse to diversifying the sector by increasing productivity.

He said that actualising the national economic diversification programme and driving a modern agricultural vision entailed refocusing funding and reorienting investments towards key drivers of agricultural growth which included research, extension, livestock, and fisheries.

He said the presence of international exhibiters underlined the fact that Zambia remained a stable environment for investment.

“As government, we will continue facilitating an enabling environment with stable and predictable policies to spur the growth of this sector. I am happy to note the presence of various foreign exhibitors and this is an affirmation that Zambia remains a stable, safe, and attractive business and political environment to the shame of a few unpatriotic elements seeking to tarnish the image of the country in foreign media and other platforms.

“We will also continue coming up with policies aimed at promoting private and public sector investments in agriculture and building institutions which will help drive government’s agricultural diversification vision,” President Lungu said.

He said government had embarked on setting up irrigation schemes across the country to increase production of crops through irrigation saying it was imperative for the country to harness its water resources and make agriculture a perennial business.

“To actualise this, government has embarked on setting up of irrigation schemes across the country to bring more land under irrigation. This one of the ways that this country will be transformed into a green revolution,” he said.

And Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya said her ministry was working hard with stakeholders to transform the agriculture sector to greater heights to make the diversification programme a reality.  Ms. Siliya said also challenged financial institutions to do more risk financing in order to help local farmers grow by offering them loans.

Speaking earlier, ZNFU president Jervis Zimba said the Agritech expo and government’s emergent farmers’ mechanisation, irrigation and aquaculture development funds could create synergies that would help the sector to grow.

“Whereas Agritech expo philosophy is to provide our farmers and agribusiness with a wide range of technologies and innovations available on the market to improve the agriculture business, our farmers and agribusiness still lack financing mechanisms adapted to farmers and agribusinesses.

“We therefore applaud government through the ministry of finance and our two line ministries for setting aside resources for tractor mechanisation, irrigation and aquaculture development. We desperately need these funds to mechanise and improve our productivity. This is one of the surest ways that will enable farmers invest and purchase the appropriate technologies after the exposure through the Agritech expo,” Mr. Zimba said.

He also noted that irrigation development was the future of Zambia’s agriculture but noted that there was also great uncertainty arising from looming prohibitive fees, fines and curtailing of access to water as the new Water Resources Management act was being implemented through the Water Resources Management Authority.

“There is concern that water rights were changed to permits that have shorter periods and this will affect future investments in irrigation. Our appeal is that consultations with the agriculture sector needs to be enhanced to avoid introduction of punitive costs and policies that could have a negative effect,” he said. He said the union was concerned that while council levies were imposed on agricultural products when accessing markets, similar products were imported duty free and no council levies were applied. He called for a level playing field if the country was to actualise its prospects in the sector.

“There is need to reduce interest rates on agricultural finance and zero-rating the agriculture sector for Value Added Tax (VAT) and these are among the quick-fixes needed to help reduce the cost of production,” he said.

He also said there was need to come up with proactive and vibrant solutions to help farmers develop and achieve a sustainable, diversified and competitive edge in production adding that among the key issues and challenges which should be addressed include how the country could lower the cost of producing for agricultural products.

He said there was need for a candid re-examination of factors which drove production costs up saying the key cost centres were the high cost of finance when available, high cost of doing business because of taxes and inputs, levies, fees, and other charges arising from energy and transportation costs.

He observed that poor productivity especially among smallholder farmers, limited investments in agriculture and marketing challenges spawned by policy inconsistencies also contributed to the rise in cost of production.

“In order to avert the high cost of production, we need, without any hesitation, to put practical and business friendly measures that will lower cost of production if the Zambian agriculture sector is to compete fairly in the region,” he said.

He called for increased investments in farmers’ skills, training, extension service delivery and farmer-adapted insurance products which he said had been overlooked for some time adding that there was need to enable Zambia farmers across all categories access appropriate and affordable technologies and innovations in farm mechanisation, irrigation, plant protection and value addition or processing.

“It is in this context that we wish to request your government not to lose the recently renewed investment interest of private sector agro SMEs in the smallholder input market because government is piloting smart e-voucher programme under FISP.

“We have seen within two seasons, a revival of 600 agro-SME investments in smallholder inputs markets and such kind of inclusive agricultural investments must be encouraged as they are key in creating rural jobs, providing easily accessible inputs for smallholder farmers, and in providing spin-offs through commodity market services,” he said.  He said the e-voucher system had been a success but observed that there was need to ensure timely subsidy funding disbursements, early start of the programme, and attending to a number of technical hiccups which were encountered during this season’s expanded pilot roll-out exercise.

“Overall, the e-voucher has demonstrated better value for both farmers and government and we stand a better chance of reaping even more benefits and systemic impact the moment we ensure that the e-voucher system runs smoothly this coming season,” he said. He further called on Government to ensure that appropriate export and import policy measures were put in place immediately so that the surplus crop will find its market and avoid the looming market failures.

Meanwhile, ZNFU executive director Ellah Chembe described this year’s Agritech expo as a milestone that will help evolve and prepare the agriculture sector for the future.

“Four years ago, we set out on a mission that would help lift the farmer from using hoe-in-hand technology which was laborious and less productive to one that would embrace modern technologies and trigger increased productivity, the Agritech expo. From humble beginnings, sitting just above 30,000 square metres of exhibition space, we now have expanded to 70,000 square metres of land, increased foreign pavilions and local and international exhibitors, and an overwhelming visitor turn-out.

“Our presence as an agricultural expo has positively reverberated not only here in Zambia but also across Africa and overseas. The presence of an increased legion of foreign exhibitors and visitors tells the tale. We are now the biggest agricultural expo in Africa, only second to South Africa and we are envisioning even much bigger expos in the coming years,” Ms. Chembe said.

She observed that while the Agritech expo presented another opportunity for farmers, agro dealers, merchants and agro-technologists and other vendors to share the best and smart agricultural practices, it remained up to the farmers to grasp the opportunity and actualise what they learnt.

She said ZNFU was interested in seeing that farmers were up-taking technologies and experiences adding that there was need for Zambian farmers to put into practice the lessons they had learnt from the expo to actualise the future vision, the dream of being a food basket of the region, and that of lifting the poor out of poverty through improved agriculture to be attained.

“We have talked about diversification and improved productivity. We have talked about the vagaries of climate change which evidently come to bear, we have received policy pronouncements of making agriculture the mainstay of the economy but the solutions are right here through shared interests between the public and the private sectors.

“With this, I would like to thank government for creating an enabling environment which allows for agriculture and indeed other sectors to thrive. I would like to implore farmers to massively utilise this business to business platform that the Agritech expo presents to grow their business,” she said.