Zambia to emulate Kenyan agricultural practices

Zambia will adopt systems similar to those practised by Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

“I chose Kenya deliberately as our problems are African problems requiring African solutions,” Zambian Minister for Agriculture and Co-operatives Ben Kapita said. He was speaking during a familiarisation visit to Kenya's Mombasa Port.

He identified livestock, fisheries, co-operative movement, research programmes and horticultural development as likely areas of co-operation. In livestock development, Kapita noted, Kenya was ahead in disease control, especially in the production of vaccines.

However, Kapita said Kenya needed to protect its intellectual property rights, especially to the improved Sahiwal and Boran breeds of cattle.

The two countries will look at ways to trade in livestock and livestock products such as beef and milk products. Officials of the co-operative movement will be trained in Kenya and exchange programmes with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute will be started.

According to the minister, Zambia needs to expand its production of fresh vegetables and cashew nuts to take advantage of the export market. Kapita said he would approach President Levy Mwanawasa to consider introducing performance-based contracts in the public service, hoping this would improve services as it had done in Kenya.

He revealed that the idea of taking Kenya as a learning point was mooted when Zambia hosted a workshop on small-scale dairy development in which Kenya participated. “During this meeting, Kenyans shared their experiences with us and we knew we had to come here,” he said.

Kapita said Zambia has been lagging behind, especially from 1991 to 2001, a situation that led to the collapse of the co-operative movement. It was during the same period that privatisation was implemented. “The government gave up the production function and never followed up on the regulatory function. We now have businesses that are not regulated and when they under perform, no one seems to notice,” he said.

Regulatory boards will, therefore, be instituted in various sectors of the Zambian agriculture, said the minister. “We want to develop an agricultural system that gives results. Although our budget as a ministry has been increasing, we have not seen corresponding improvement in performance,” he said.

In the last Zambian budget allocation agriculture was allocated 8.8 per cent, and it is expected that in the next financial year it will get 10 per cent, Kapita said

The East African