By Jeff Kapembwa
Zambia celebrated its second bumper harvest of maize crop in a row amid warnings of an impending climatic driven crisis that threatens food security in the Southern African bread basket
Amid the country’s expected 4.9 million metric tons of the staple food, there are signals of an impending El Nino driven drought that might stifle the country’s food vision to maximize food production to 10 million tons of the maize, wheat and soya crop by 2031 through increased hectare output.
Patrick Kangwa, the Secretary to the Cabinet while commended players for their collaborative effort in the increased food output, urged the farmers and other interest groups to co-exist and remain resistant amind a looming climate induced disaster that afflicted the Southern African region during the 2023-24 farming season and cut food output for Zambia by 1.5 million tons.
“I want to encourage everyone to remain vigilant about the future. current meteorological projections indicate a higher likelihood of below-average rainfall for the upcoming 2026/2027 agricultural season.” he said in Lusaka when he launched the crop harvest survey results
He encouraged players to remain absolute resilient against the anticipated crisis while the Government will play its part in providing an enabling environment to protect the environment while promoting climate smart agriculture to fully assure of food security all Zambians.
On the heightened production of maize and other crops, Kangwa projected increased crop production volumes of critical commodities, including maize, rice, soybeans, and wheat compared to the 2024/2025 agricultural season citing favourable weather.
“This strong performance we are experiencing in the crop sector is a positive response attributed to relatively favorable weather conditions coupled with targeted interventions by government and stakeholders.” He said.
He announced the Government’s enactment of three major agricultural laws, the Food Reserve Act 2026, the Agricultural Credits and Warehouse Receipts Act Number 7 of 2026 and the Agricultural Marketing Act Number 8 of 2026 to strengthen food security and attract private sector investment in the agriculture sector.
Earlier during the launch of SOFF, a weather detector, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit’s national Coordinator, Norman Chipakupaku had warned of an impending El Nino driven crisis that threatened food output.