Farmers need to benefit from investment-expert 

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 13:15:20 +0000

BY MAILESI BANDA

 GOVERNMENT needs to create better policies in the agricultural sector and help provide farmers with a large percentage of their investment to make the agriculture sector profitable, a visiting agriculture expert has advised.

No Bull Enterprise president, Mike Callicrate, said there was need for the farmer to have a direct link to the final consumer for them to make returns on their investments.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, he said it was unfortunate that farmers who were the main players in the food industry did not get enough returns on their investments. “There has never been more money in the food industry like there is now but the challenge still remains that so little of the money made goes back to the farmers,’’ he said.

He said farmers have over the years been wealth creators in the food chain but received little returns on their investment.

He challenged Zambians to go back to the agriculture sector and  feed the nation, adding that with the land and water resources in the country there was potential for them to produce enough even for the export market.

He said it was a shame for a country like Zambia so much land and water resources to be importing grain. “There is need to build the Zambian agriculture sector so that farmers can feed the nation and still have the extra produce for the export market,’’ he said.

He advised against the use of chemicals on the soil as this had adverse effects on the soil.

“The Zambian Government should encourage farmers to go back to the soil; we need to return nutrients to the soil by returning it to its original position and avoiding the use of chemicals,’’ he said.