Chituwo emphasises infrastructure development in agriculture

Chituwo emphasises infrastructure development in agriculture
By Florence Bupe
Sat 05 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

AGRICULTURE minister Brian Chituwo has emphasised that infrastructure development is vital to the growth of the agriculture sector.

And Care International Zambia assistant country director for programmes Steve Power has said there is need to provide affordable inputs at the right time for the agriculture sector to register meaningful increase in production levels.

Officiating at the Care International Zambia organised Agro Dealer Project Dissemination meeting at Southern Sun Hotel in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Chituwo observed that the private sector was unwilling to participate in agricultural activities in most rural areas of the country due to the existing poor infrastructure.

He said inadequate infrastructure was contributing to lack of sector growth.
Dr Chituwo therefore called on all stakeholders to contribute towards the improvement of infrastructure.

“Because of unfavourable conditions like infrastructure, the private sector is usually not willing to go and buy produce from small-scale farmers, most of whom are located in far-flung areas. We should appreciate that the private sector is not a charitable organisation, they use resources, most of which are borrowed,” Dr Chituwo said.

He said private sector players were profit oriented, hence the need for them to operate in favourable conditions, which included conducive infrastructure.

Dr Chituwo noted that most far-flung rural areas housed highly productive farmers who were facing challenges in marketing their crop because of the disadvantaged location.

He cited Muyombe district in Northern Province as one such area which faced challenges in crop marketing due to poor infrastructure. Dr Chituwo further called for the strengthening of linkages between agro dealers and small-scale farmers.

And Power called on agro dealers to promote the correct use of agricultural inputs for increased production. Power observed that Zambia’s small-scale agricultural production had remained static partly due to the challenges faced in the input distribution chain.

The meeting was aimed at disseminating findings from a baseline study that was commissioned in January this year to assess the agro dealer and farmer relationship, bringing out the challenges and achievements.