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By Scoop Reporter
The Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) is developing advanced climate-smart agriculture technologies including crop varieties and agronomic practices to boost yields and enhance food security while mitigating the effects of climate change.
Speaking on the side lines of the ongoing benchmarking meetings in Pretoria, South Africa, ZARI Acting Director Dr. Ndashe Kapulu said developing climate resilient technologies such as drought, pest and disease tolerant seed varieties remains critical in mitigating climate change threats as we strive to achieve the production targets.
Dr. Kapulu said the Institute has developed rain-fed wheat varieties to enable smallholder farmers diversify into wheat production.
“The plan is to link smallholder farmers to better markets to improve their incomes. We are doing this to increase their productivity in the country’s quest to achieve the production target of a million metric tonnes of wheat annually by 2027. Additionally, we are also developing well-adapted irrigated wheat varieties to counter the effects of diseases such as wheat rust, which significantly affects yields,” Dr. Kapulu explained.
He expressed confidence that this will ultimately contribute to Zambia meeting its ambitious agricultural outputs as directed by President Hakainde Hichilema for the country to produce 10 million metric tonnes of maize and a million metric tonnes of wheat, as well as soybeans annually by 2027.
“As ZARI, we are deploying several technologies, including the development of high-yielding maize varieties tolerant drought, pests, and diseases,” he added.
He also revealed ZARI’s ongoing work in soybeans research, stating that the Institute is developing several high-yielding varieties while some are under evaluation, with some already released for use by smallholder farmers.
“For soybeans, we have varieties suited for smallholder growing conditions, with competitive yields ranging from 3 to 3.5 metric tonnes per hectare. However, reaching full yield potential requires the adoption of good agronomic practices, and we are working closely with the Department of Agriculture through the extension services to ensure farmers receive proper guidance,” he added.
Meanwhile, Acting Director Seed Control and Certification Institute Dr. Nathan Phiri said the benchmarking exercise to South Africa is vital as it has given the team more insights on what improvements need to be undertaken to enhance productivity in agriculture in Zambia.
Dr. Phiri said the knowledge acquired by the team would be passed on to the farmers to ensure that they are well equipped with inputs such as quality and healthy seeds.
He said Zambia requires the availability of improved seed varieties that are also resilient to adverse climatic conditions to achieve the set targets.
This is availed in a statement issued by
Zambia’s First Secretary Press to South Africa, Tamara Nyirenda.
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