Agro sector has great potential – PS

Martin Mashekwa  writes SOUTHERN province permanent secretary, Mwangala Liomba says the agriculture sector has a great potential to change lives of communities and improve the economy of the country if well managed.  Speaking when he graced a field day organized by the Zambia Seed Company (Zam-Seed) in Nantale area of chief Siachitema of Kalomo at Mr Daniel Mwanaboi’s farm yesterday, Mr. Liomba says government attaches great importance to the agriculture sector as one of the major drivers of the country’s economy hence the rolling out of various project aiming at improving the welfare of people.  Mr Liomba has since called on the farming community to crop diversify as a measure to mitigate the effects of climate change across either good or bad rain patterns in each farming season to realise maximum  food production in their various locales. “Agriculture is one major sector that has potential to change our lives and improve our economy, besides provision of food for households, it provides raw materials to various industries such as animal feed industries, bakeries, breweries, textiles, oil entities and so on. Government, is therefore serious about increasing food production and to support the agriculture sector in a series of various interventions it has engaged itself into,” Mr. Liomba stated. He cited the just launched aqua-culture project for the youth and the diversification strides of crops such as soya beans, groundnuts, upland rice and sunflower initiative under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) as measures taken by government to boost the agriculture sector. Mr. Liomba commended Zam-Seed Company for its continued support to be a custodian of a wide range of crop seeds that supports crop diversification since the establishment of the seed company in 1980. The Field day was witnessed by Zam-Seed managing director, William Rutherford at Mr. Mwanaboi’s farm who planted 40 hectares of ZMS 638 and 405 varieties giving him numerous metric tonnes of maize yield. Kalomo district in Southern province boasts of being number three on maize national yields from Petauke and Mkushi districts. The Sun