By HELEN ZULU –
THE German Farmers Association (DBV) has said empowerment of local farmers is the only remedy to a secure and sound performing agricultural sector.
DBV vice president Werner Schwarz said empowering farmers was a vital step and should be top priority if any country is to have a successful agricultural sector.
Mr Schwarz said for many years policy makers had continued to neglect the fact that agriculture was a crucial part of any toolbox and a crucial part of a country’s development policy.
Mr Schwarz said besides a reliable political framework, strong and independent farmer’s organisations contributed highly to a viable farming sector and general economic growth.
He said this at the official opening of the Pan African Farmers Organisation (PAFO) conference in Lusaka on Wednesday.
He noted that farmers were facing more complex challenges such as climate instability, price and market volatility as well as the imbalances in the food chain.
“Farmers in developing countries are facing even more complex challenges such as lack of access to land, limited availability of tailor made technology and innovation in agriculture, limited access to finance and lack of access to markets.
In my opinion, empowering farmers is the key and should be the top priority if we are to overcome these challenges the farmers are faced with,” he said.
To make it clear, it was not only a question of availability of modern technology and other agricultural innovation but modernising agriculture had to be aligned to the possibilities and?needs of farmers.
Modernisation could only be achieved if it was combined with qualification and training of farmers as an efficient use of modern technologies required an adequate organisational structure like machinery rings.

. Nguleka

Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) president Evelyn Nguleka reiterated that at regional and global levels, policy space for governments had been narrowing because of the trade liberalisation and regional integration.
She said this emanated from the fact that there was general consensus that larger markets promoted efficiency for farmers or economic agents with benefits spilling over to consumers.
It was important to underscore that the overriding objective of the intervention was to raise productivity at farm level and in the process improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in a world where markets were becoming more and more integrated.
“However, it is also true that our economies are at different stages of economic development with each country striving to better the lives of its deprived citizens and Africa is a home to a majority of such people.
Because of this, strengthening partnerships with our colleagues in the northern hemisphere can only embrace the leap of the continent forward. ZNFU has embraced such partnerships with the support of the German government,” Dr Nguleka said.