Zambia aims to become Africa's food basket amid climate change

The Southern African state's President Hakainde Hichilema told foreign investors that it was well placed to fill the commodity void left by the Russia-Ukraine war, writes Jeff Kapembwa.

- Jeff Kapembwa

The call to maximise Zambia’s growth sectors so it can become Africa’s food basket amid climate change, and the increased cost of imported food and inputs and other headwinds, is spurring the country to become innovative in agricultural production.

Although the mining sector has been Zambia’s lifeblood since the early 1930s, this has waned in recent years because of fluctuating copper prices.

President Hakainde Hichilema assured delegates during separate meetings of the European Parliament in Brussels and an African Union (AU) Mid-Year Review meeting that Zambia was “well placed” to weather the global food crisis, which had been worsened by the war in Ukraine and the climate change crisis.

It was the country’s resolve, he stated, to fill the void and grow the various food items on demand across the continent, become the largest contributor, and make Africa food sufficient, despite Zambia’s more than US$20 billion (about R383 billion) “excruciating external debt burden”.

“As the world faces critical shortages of key agricultural produce, and as we witness the devastating effects of food insecurity in all our regions of Africa and beyond, Zambia is well placed,” Hichilema told the European Parliament in Brussels.