By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –

MONSANTO Zambia Limited has launched a crop insurance product on the Zambian market called “DK Chilala” aimed at mitigating against climate change.

Monsanto Zambia regional sales manager for Central, Copperbelt and North-western provinces Davison Silungwe said the company was now implementing a DK Chilala insurance product on all its hybrids.

This was one way of assisting farmers against any unforeseen drought.

“When farmers buy seed from a certified dealer, and after it is planted and it doesn’t rain the farmers have difficulties in accessing seed again and they end up recycling commercial grain as seed.

“This is why we have decided to come up with this product to help farmers access certified seed again from us so that they can replantand have good crop establishment and assured crop productivity,” Mr Silungwe said.

This is also a security measure to ensure that farmers will only buy Monsanto product.

“Farmers are going to be sensitised to buy only Monsanto products that have an insurance label anything minus that the farmers should not buy and this is also a social responsibility for the company as farmers can now plant their crop with the peace of mind knowing that it is insured,” he said.

Mr Silungwe was speaking at the just ended agricultural and commercial show in Lusaka.

He said the company would be using satellite data to monitor the rain pattern across the country, therefore, if farmers don’t receive sufficient rainfall in the first 21 days from day of planting they will get automated message to go and claim seed at any renowned nearest authorised DK stockist.