Zambia and Kenya have provisionally agreed on a deal under which the Lusaka authorities will provide Kenyan commercial farmers with land to grow maize, according to reports monitored here on Tuesday.
In a report carried by online news agency Lusaka Times, visiting Kenyan agriculture cabinet secretary Mithika Linturi announced that was the two countries would ink a memorandum of understanding (MOU) allowing Kenyan farmers to grow maize in Zambia.
“I am happy the Zambian government has agreed to offer Kenyan farmers land for large-scale farming in Zambia. Kenyan farmers will in turn be required to export their yields back to Kenya in order to boost our food supply and security,” Linturi is quoted as saying.
He said the deal was agreed during a meeting he held with his Zambian counterpart Reuben Mtolo in Lusaka on Monday but did not when it would be signed.
Linturi said the proposed MOU is expected to lead to a reduction of the cost of maize and its products in both countries.
“Based on the projections he shared with us, the farmers will be able to achieve the objective of bringing down the cost of unga (maize meal) because, clearly, they got it right and there is something to learn from them.”
He said officials from the two countries would work out the price at which Zambia would sell the maize to Kenya, which “of course, (would be) a much lower price than we are currently getting from the traders.”
Zambian farmers would also benefit from the deal as their government agreed to supply Kenya with their surplus maize in the short term.
The planned arrangement with Zambia comes in the wake of a recent shortage of maize meal in Kenya, which Linturi blamed on hoarding by farmers in the hope of getting better a producer price.
JN/APA