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Agriculture
Investment Areas of Interest
Favourable investment opportunities exist in:
• Agricultural Inputs
- Fertilizers, farm equipment and animal feed also
have significant potential, as does the packaging of
agricultural produce for export.
• Agricultural Support Services
- This includes the construction of dams and bore-
holes, installation of irrigation systems and extension
services.
• Fisheries
- Zambia’s abundant fresh water and rivers provide
vast fishing and fish farming potential.
• Horticulture & Floriculture
- The production of cut flowers, wheat, soybean, cot-
ton, tobacco and sugar.
• Livestock
- Non-conventional livestock farming, such as croco-
dile, or ostrich farming.
• Poultry Products
- Hatcheries for the production of chicken for both
domestic and regional markets.
While tobacco is increasingly seen as a lucrative
cash crop, its production countrywide – especially in
the dryer Southern region – can be increased three-
fold with appropriate infrastructure development. In-
creases in coffee and cotton production have similar
growth potential.
Furthermore, both traditional and non-traditional ag-
ricultural exports have historically been exported in
their raw, unprocessed form, yet there now exists a
great deal of potential in the downstream processing
of agricultural produce. Private enterprise is able to
take advantage of the gap that exists in the market
through investments in processing plants, either as
stand-alone units or in conjunction with agricultural
initiatives.
In addition to a reduced tax rate of 15 percent on
income from farming activities, the government also
provides a number of incentives and allowances
within the agricultural sector. These include: 50 per-
cent depreciation allowance per year for the first two
years on machinery used for farming; 20 percent
capital expenditure allowance per year for the first
five years on farm improvements; 10 percent devel-
opment allowance per year, up to the first year of
production, on capital expenditures incurred for the
purpose of growing coffee, tea, bananas, citrus fruits
or similar plants; and 100 percent farm work allow-
ance for expenditures on farmland, such as stump-
ing, land clearing, water conservation and the like.
Major job creation developments during 2009 in-
clude a Memorandum of Understanding with Man
Ferrostaal for a US$ 400 million investment into the
cultivation and refinement of Jatropha in the North-
ern Province. Jatropha is plant that yields a fruit,
which can be harvested and used in the production
of biodiesel, among other various products. The
indigenous nature of the Jatropha tree to Zambia
and the abundance of opportunities for the devel-
opment of this plant/product present an enormous
opportunity for Zambia to contribute to not only the
development of its own agricultural sector, but to an
entirely new, rapidly growing, global alternative en-
ergy industry.
AGRICULTURAL SUBSECTORS
Zambia produces a variety of crops, livestock, fish
and agro-forestry commodities. In addition to maize,
the staple food, other crops produced include wheat,
cassava, millet, sorghum, rice, soybeans, ground-
nuts and mixed beans. Cash crops such as cotton,
tobacco, sugar cane, coffee, tea, seeds, flowers
and high-value horticultural produce are becoming
increasingly important as foreign exchange earn-
ers. Cattle are the most predominant livestock, while
pigs, poultry, sheep and goats are also raised in
large numbers. Fresh water fish production occurs
around areas with rivers and lakes.
Cassava
One of Zambia’s staple crops, cassava, is produced
in Northern and Luapula provinces, which contribute
to about 70 percent of the national cassava output,
followed by Western Province at 16 percent and
Southern Province at less than 1 percent. As part of
its emphasis on decreasing dependence on rain-fed
crops, Zambia’s government has identified cassava
production as a means to improve food security. It is
hoped that as cassava production increases it will
offset the country’s heavy dependence on maize as
the primary food crop.
Wheat
Two crops of wheat are produced each year due to
the rotation of the crop with cotton and soybeans.
Greater focus is being given to the production of irrigat-