Wheat harvesting in Zambia

 If I had arrived any later in Chisamba I may have missed out on the combine harvesting season. It begins in the last week in September and a few days ago I noted the combines in the fields.

The principal cash crop in Zambia is corn, which is also a traditional staple food.
Other important crops are soybeans, cotton, sugar cane, sunflower seeds, wheat,
and tobacco. Most crop production is rain-fed rather than irrigated, mainly because
irrigation is too costly for most Zambian, therefore agricultural output is highly
correlated with rainfall.

The cropping industry in Zambia as risky, due to its dependence on
rainfall. Precision farming on irrigated land is, by contrast, very attractive
given favourable climate conditions that allow two crops a year to be
harvested.

Zambeef Products PLC Group is one of the largest agi-businesses in Zambia and the region, involved in the production, processing, distribution and retailing of beef, pork, chickens, eggs, milk, dairy products, edible oils, flour and bread throughout Zambia and West Africa.

The company is also one of the largest cropping operations in Africa with 5 000 hectares under irrigation of row crops. Managing Director Francis Grogan of Zambeef farm invited me to get a closer look and experience the harvesting of the wheat at first hand.

Inside the cab of the combine the wheat fields stretched as far as the eye could see.

As a farmer's daughter, I couldn't help but think of my father who spent his whole life farming in Co.Tyrone. He might not have thought much of the heat but he would have loved the experience of sitting up in the cab   watching and listening to the drone of a 30ft head in front of him trash and feed the golden locks of wheat in through the moving blades to produce tonnes of wheat grain at high speed behind his back.

According to the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture, of a total of 7.5mn ha of land,
4.2mn ha (58%) is classified as having medium-to-high potential for agricultural
production, and 12% is suitable for arable production. However, only an estimated
14% of this is currently cultivated.

The cropping industry is still dominated by small scale farmers with holdings of 1-5
ha, and producing mainly cotton, millet and sorghum, as well as a large proportion of
its corn and sunflowers. According to the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture, there are
about a dozen large commercial farmers in the country’s cropping industry.

Zambia’s underutilised, fertile soil, and access to water (Zambia has access to 40% of Sub-
Sahara Africa’s water resources), combined with favourable prevailing weather
conditions, make Zambia a very attractive crops producer. All these factors,combined with global trends in the cropping industry, have led Zambeef to continue investing heavily in expanding its cropping operations.

 Back at the mill plant  on Zambeef farm the grains of wheat flow from the trucks and stored in huge bins as shown below.

 The wheat is milled into flour

 

 and packed into trucks to be delivered to the various outlets.

The Zambian National Farmer's Union (ZNFU) report that 2010 has been a good year in terms of food production as the country has been boasting of a bumper harvest of maize. The same is expected regarding wheat and they stress that the benefit of being self-sufficient in wheat production should be well appreciated especially in view of recent global developments. In Russia there has been a ban of grain exports after drought and wildfires destroyed crop-growing areas to protect domestic consumption. This has resulted in rising wheat prices and high food costs. This development goes to underline the importance of safeguarding domestic production of essential agricultural commodities such as wheat, maize, soya beans, etc. because although local prices will rise in response to regional and global developments, they are still bound to remain cheaper than imports.