By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
INVESTORS should take advantage of increased soya beans production to invest in value addition activities in the country, Kitwe-based farmers’ cooperative official has said.
Border Farmers Cooperative (BFC) chairperson William Osborn said 2016/2017 farming season has seen increased production of soya beans resulting in prices of the   commodity dropping by more than 50 per cent and investors should take advantage of that.
“Prices of commodities are determined by market forces and soya beans is not an exceptional but what we need to do is attract more investments to increase value addition activities thereby creating more market for agro products like soya beans,” he said this in an interview in Kitwe at the weekend.

SOYA BEANS

Mr Osborn said with more crushing activities , the crop can significantly contribute effectively to the economic development of country looking at its product variations.
And commenting on the newly launched Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) whose focus is on economic diversification, Mr Osborn calls for more practical measures for the document to achieve its intended purpose.
Mr  Osborn who is former Copperbelt Agriculture and Commercial Show Society (CACSS) chairperson said the successful implementation of the document will not be realised if practical measures on how to fund proposed economic road map were not clearly spelt out. He said with unpredictable copper prices, diversification to agriculture and tourism was  the way to go.