在中国，素有“菜篮子”和“米袋子”一说，指的是蔬菜、粮食等群众生活必需品；而非洲南部的赞比亚，正计划将农业作为其经济发展的主要驱动力
文I 昌达 赞比亚《每日邮报》公关顾问 翻译I 王晓波
● 农民投入支持计划
● 多样化的选择
●产粮大国投资潜力大
史上赞比亚的经济一直以采铜业为主，它占到了赞比亚国民生产总值的10%、对外出口的60%。近年来，由于铜价下跌，赞比亚政府转而将农业作为其经济发展的主要驱动力，并宣布其目标是要让农业占到国民生产总值的20%。
这个位于非洲南部的国家拥有7500万公顷土地，同时拥有大量的水利灌溉体系，但是在农产品的耕作方面却有了新变化——农民在玉米（赞比亚人以玉米面为主食，译者注）种植上呈下降趋势，他们越来越多的是选择棉花、烟草和甘蔗等经济价值较高的农产品。
农民投入支持计划
农民投入支持计划(Farmer Input Support Programme, FISP)是一项复杂、高成本且带有争议性的政府补助计划，由赞比亚政府在2003年颁布。通过这一项补助计划，玉米种植户可以低于市场价购买到便宜的种子和化肥。
赞比亚农业部长多拉·西利亚说，“我认为FISP是一个意图很好的项目规划，如果能够实施得当的话，它具备改善农民生活的可能性。但要做到这一点，私营企业必须与公共服务部门密切合作”。
在过去的10年中，私营企业对赞比亚农业的投资一直在持续增长，并取得了一定的成就。
多样化的选择
赞比亚总统埃德加·伦古认为，在发展农业种植的同时，渔业和畜牧业也应当成为农业增长的重点，围绕着它们其他产业才能得到综合发展。赞比亚政府正在通过在具有潜力的区域开发水产养殖园区来发展渔类产业。
2016年赞比亚在各个经济领域共投资34亿美元，比上一年增长了0.7%。赞比亚开发署的一位官员说，能源部门获得的投资金额最多，然后是制造业和农业——它们也会带动对电力的更多需求。
国际增长中心（IGC）的一份报告显示，蔗糖已成为赞比亚最成功的非传统农作物出口产品之一（占总出口额的6%），可以占到赞比亚国民生产总值的3%〜4%，并且为11000名工人提供了就业机会。现在蔗糖加工业能为赞比亚实现年4500万美元的外汇创收。相较上世纪90年代中期2500万元的收入，这个数字已经增长了近1倍。
无独有偶，参与棉花种植的小型农户也已经超过20万，他们都与轧棉企业签订了种植合同。赞比亚的气候对棉花的种植非常有利，而且它拥有丰富的可耕作土地。赞比亚南部的可耕面积有650亩，北部有1800亩，可以用来大量种植棉花、烟草和花生等。
此外，这些地区还可以种植各类蔬菜和柑橘类水果，比如香蕉、菠萝、芒果、鳄梨和葡萄。荔枝是一种颇具潜力的出口水果，茶叶和咖啡的种植一直以来都很成功。
赞比亚，农民用联合收割机在收大豆（CFP）
产粮大国投资潜力大
由于前文提到的赞比亚政府对玉米的种植给予了补贴，这使它在非洲南部降水不稳定以及近来遭遇秋粘虫侵袭后仍能实现玉米生产的盈余。
一位农业专家认为，如果赞比亚在全年农作物生产过程中都能采用现代技术，它就完全具备成为产粮大国的潜能。
赞比亚农业政策研究院（IAPRI）的执行理事强斯·卡巴格则认为，外国对赞比亚农业的投资是可行的，因为它的各项政策都已到位。
同时卡巴格先生建议说，“政策的持续性是吸引外资的关键因素，如果希望得到大规模的资金投入，政府就必须有可预期的和透明的政策保障”。
赞比亚财政部长菲利克斯·穆塔提在2017年国家财政预算报告中宣布，扩大农业生产能够助推宏观经济目标的实现，因为它可以创造就业，带动经济的多样化发展，因此这将成为经济复苏计划——ZambiaPlus的一部分。
穆塔提先生说，“我们一直在非常积极地吸引外资对我国的投资。最近我去欧洲进行了调研，发现越来越多的投资者愿意前来投资。”他引用了德国一家公司Amatheon Agri作为例证，这家公司还将为他们在蒙布瓦的业务再投入8000万美元，用于扩展其棉花种植基地以外的其它农业项目。
中国政府同样也正在践行他们支持非洲农业实现现代化的承诺。习近平主席在中非合作论坛约翰内斯堡峰会上提出了10大合作计划和600亿美元的投资方案。约堡峰会后，已经有几位赞比亚的农业技术人员接受了现代农业耕作方法的培训，中国和赞比亚的学术机构之间也建立了合作关系。
为了确保赞比亚发展绿色农业和成为产粮大国的梦想能够得以实现，中赞其他方面的合作，比如科学与技术、商贸与工业、能源、水资源开发等相关领域，也都得到了加强。
Zambia: Southern Africa’s bread basket?
By Mwazipeza Chanda, Communications Consultant at Zambia Daily Mail
● FarmerInput Support Programme
● Primefor diversification
● Moreinvestment opportunities
With the drop in copper prices and reduceddemand for the mineral, Zambia has turned to agriculture as the main economicdriver.
The southern African nation boasts a landmass of 75 million hectares (752,614 Km²) and holds vast amounts of waterbodies but has seen little in the way of farming – with only maize being grownon a large scale by small-scale farmers. Others cash crops are cotton, tobaccoand sugar.
The Zambian economy has historically beenbased on the copper-mining industry, which contributes around 10% to Zambia’sGDP and accounts for 60% of the country’s total exports.
At the launch of the second NationalAgricultural Policy, the government announced a target of 20% GDP from theagriculture sector to the national GDP.
The aspiration is to see Zambia become theregional food basket.
FarmerInput Support Programme
Zambia’s Minister of Agriculture DoraSiliya says government support to local farmers through the Farmer InputSupport Programme (FISP) has not translated into farming becoming a commerciallyviable activity.
The minister wants more investment andfinancing to be targeted towards building industrial chains that will see smallholder farmers becoming wealthy.
“I believe that FISP is a well-intentionedprogramme and if it is properly executed, it has the potential to transform thelives of our smallholder farmers by linking them to profitable markets, butthis could only be possible if the private and public sector service work instrong partnerships.”
Private sector investment into Zambia’sagriculture has seen continued rowth and success over the past ten year.
According to a World Bank report, theagriculture sector provides employment to some 67 % of the labour force andsupplies raw materials to agro-related industries, which account for some 84%of manufacturing value-added in the country.
In 2016 the country had 1.5 millionhectares of cultivated land with 800,000 smallholders whose land accounted for80% of the cultivated area.
Primefor diversification
Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu says theagriculture sector, fisheries, and livestock will be the main focus of Zambia’seconomic growth around which other sectors will be developed in an integratedmanner.
The country recorded US$3.4 billion ininvestment pledges in different sectors of the economy in 2016, representing a0.7% increase from the previous year.
The Zambia Development Agency says theenergy sector registered the highest amount of pledged investment, followed bymanufacturing and agriculture – this will translate into increased powersupply.
Clearly, this is a sign that Zambia isready for economic growth and primed for attracting foreign investment.
According to a recent study by aLondon-based research institute, the sugar, cotton and coffee sub-sectors havethe potential to diversify Zambia’s economy and contribute significantly to itsgrowth.
A report by the International Growth Centre(IGC) indicates that sugar is one of Zambia’s most important economicsub-sectors and one of the most successful non-traditional exports (NTEs).Sugar accounts for 3 – 4% of Zambia’s GDP and 6% of the total national exportswhile employing around 11,000 workers.
The sugar industry generates over UnitedStates dollars US$45million in gross exports annually, which has almost doubledfrom the mid-1990s when export earnings stood at around US$25m.
The cotton sector has over 200,000smallholder farmers producing the crop under out-grower contracts with theginning companies.
Zambia’s climate is favourable foragriculture with abundant arable land receiving 650 mm in the southern part ofthe country and 1,800 mm in the north. A wide range of crops can be grown;maize, millets, sorghum, tobacco, cotton, rice, wheat and groundnuts.
All kinds of vegetables can be grown,together with citrus fruit, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, avocados and grapes.Litchis are a high potential export crop. Tea and coffee have been grownsuccessfully, while sugar cane is grown by villagers and at a commercial level.
The Zambian Government is expanding thefisheries sub-sector through the development of aqua-culture parks in highpotential zones.
Moreinvestment opportunities
Due to the Zambian government’s supporttowards the production of maize on a subsidised basis, it is the only countrythat has a maize surplus following erratic rainfall across the southern Africaregion – combined with a recent attack of Fall Armyworms.
An agri-business expert says Zambia has thepotential to be a bread basket as modern technology would allow for productionof crops all year round.
Indaba Agricultural Policy ResearchInstitute (IAPRI) executive director Chance Kabaghe says foreign investmentinto Zambia’s agricultural sector is viable because policies are in place.
“Policy consistency is an important factorin attracting foreign investment,” Mr Kabaghe says, “to attract sizeable money– there must be predictable and transparent policies.”
Zambia's Minister of Finance, Felix Mutatiin the 2017 national budget announced that agriculture expansion would supportmacro-economic objectives to drive job creation and economic diversification,as part of the Economic Recovery Programme – Zambia Plus.
“We have been aggressive in attractinginvestment into the country and following my recent tour of Europe we areseeing more investors coming to the country,” Mr Mutati says.
He cited German firm, Amatheon Zambia,which will invest an additional US$80million into their Mumbwa business aimedat expanding agricultural activity outside of their cotton base.
In 2015 the Chinese government pledged tosupport the modernisation of Africa’s agricultural sector.
President Xi Jinping at the JohannesburgSummit of the Forum for China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) set out a 10-pointplan with a US$60 billion fund towards the industrialisation of Africa thatincluded support for the modernisation of the agricultural sector.
The FOCAC pledge has already seen severalZambian agriculture technologists receive training in modern farming methods,as well as setting up collaboration between Chinese and Zambian academicinstitutions.
Sectors such as science and technology,commerce trade and industry, energy, health, water development, research, anddevelopment are also being enhanced to ensure Zambia’s green revolution andambition to be a regional bread basket.