By NICHOLAS MWALE –
GOVERNMENT and the World Bank have signed an agreement for the Central Veterinary Research Institute (CVRI) to produce 24 million vaccines to curb the newcastle disease.
Veterinary Services acting director in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Swithen Kabilika said in Lusaka yesterday that the vaccines would be supplied to rural areas to help combat the newcastle disease that is affecting the poultry sector.
“Poultry has been used as a source of income, especially among the less-privileged people in rural areas,” Dr Kabilika said.
Dr Kabilika said newcastle disease has been the major challenge hindering the growth of the poultry industry, especially in rural areas.
“This is why the World Bank is supporting us in this area. To this effect, we have signed an agreement with World Bank to produce 24 million Newcastle vaccines to supply to rural areas. The project is currently going at CVRI and it is doing quite well,” he said.
Dr Kabilika said this at the inception workshop for the project of strengthening food and nutrition security through family poultry and crop integration in Tanzania and Zambia being supported by the Australian government through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) at a total cost of 742,000 Australian Dollars.
Meanwhile, Agriculture and Livestock Permanent Secretary David Shamulenge has said the Zambian Government has taken necessary steps to protect the livestock sector by introducing policies such as the compulsory cattle dipping and compulsory vaccination of chickens against newcastle disease.
“As outlined in the Patriotic Front (PF) Manifesto, Agriculture is identified as one of the key tools for poverty alleviation and of particular interest is livestock which the Government has taken necessary steps to protect by introducing policies like the compulsory cattle dipping and compulsory vaccinations of chickens against Newcastle disease,” he said.
Dr  Shamulenega said the despite overall increase in agricultural production, malnutrition rates in children have not significantly diminished in Zambia just like in many developing countries.
He commended the Australian government for being long standing partner with developing countries including Zambia and Tanzania through the ACIAR in the development of technologies that aim at improving small-scale production especially in rural areas — NAIS.