Maravi

(LUSAKATIMES) New fertiliser plant coming

COMMENT - This is a great short term solution. However, in the long term the country and the farmers should be looking at sustainable agriculture, which is based on recycling nutrients.

New fertiliser plant coming
Monday, March 29, 2010, 8:03

GREENBELT Fertilisers Limited (GBF), a Zambian owned firm, is to set up a fertiliser blending plant in Mkushi at a cost of K3.5 billion. This will be in addition to another already existing plant in Mazabuka.

After completing the Mkushi plant the company would have a capacity to produce more than twice the amount of fertiliser used in Zambia.

GBF Spokesperson Stanley Kasiya said in a statement that the two fertiliser plants would have the capacity to produce in excess of 350,000 metric tonnes of compound fertilisers per year.

He said the equipment for the Mkushi fertiliser plant arrived in the country two weeks ago.

Mr Kasiya said the Zambian fertiliser market consumed approximately 160,000 metric tonnes of compound fertilisers per year and with the new fertiliser plant coming, the long-term plan for GBF was to capture a significant share of both the commercial and small-scale farmers’ market.

He said that GBF was already running a modern, state-of-the-art fertiliser plant supplied from the USA. The raw materials are sourced from around the world and Greenbelt was taking advantage of the latest proven and improved products on the market.

Mr Kasiya said the plant located in Mazabuka was commissioned in June 2004 and was producing competitively and servicing the local farmers.

He said the coming of GBF would also reduce on the monopoly by some industry on the fertiliser market.

The setting up of another fertiliser plant in Mkushi would be a platform for innovative fertiliser products to the Zambian market and enhance farmers’ yields and quality.

Mr Kasiya said GBF currently employed over 150 people in Zambia and provided extension advice to the agricultural sector.

The company also made investments in intellectual capital in the form of highly trained and experienced agronomists, to improve the service to agriculture in Zambia.

He said the number of workers under GBF was expected to rise to over 250 after the commissioning of the Mkushi plant.

“Greenbelt Fertilisers provides scientifically formulated compound fertilisers to farmers in Zambia, which are formulated to each farmer’s soil, crop and targeted yield requirements. These compound fertilisers are made from a stock range of more than twenty raw materials covering all macro nutrients,” he said.

Mr Kasiya explained that the plant was able to put together compound fertilisers with as many as 11 different nutrient types in a single compound.

He said regular monitoring of fertiliser samples were sent to an independent laboratory in South Africa to ensure all the compounds meet internationally recognised standards.

The demand of fertiliser in Zambia is high and Government was encouraging people to focus more investments in industries that support the agriculture sector.

[Times of Zambia]

Labels: FERTILIZER, STANLEY KASIYA

posted by MrK @ 11:23 PM