Rice is growing in popularity among farmers in Zambia. Kawambwa district in Luapula Province is one of the areas drastically expanding rice farming recently; the number of rice farmers has increased from 67 to over 1,000, and eight cooperatives specializing in rice farming have been officially established in the past 5 years.
Steven Musonda, Kawambwa’s District Agricultural Coordinator, noted that “one of the reasons for the expansion is the profitability of rice farming compared to other crops”. However, the rapid expansion of rice farming in the district was not caused just because of the profitability and the technical support on rice farming. Mr. Musonda believes “it is attributed to the enhanced collaboration among key stakeholders involved in the rice industry such as farmers, rice buyers/brokers, whole and retail sellers, rice millers, seed companies and seed growers, other agricultural service and input providers, NGOs, and the MoA officers”.
The Provincial and District government played a crucial role in connecting these stakeholders. Frank Kunda, Crop Husbandry Officer in the District, detailed the activities collaboratively conducted by the Ministry, rice farmers and Market-Oriented Rice Development Project (MOReDeP). “The project began its activities in this district in 2021. When it started, the first issue raised by farmers was the lack of market to sell their rice. The project collaborated with the district office, focusing not only on the dissemination of agricultural technologies and the training of farmers but also securing sales channels to address this challenge”. As part of the project, stakeholder meetings were organized in the provincial capital, Mansa, bringing together a variety of stakeholders including district officers and farmer representatives, who actively promoted their rice to traders and buyers. District officers, camp extension officers and farmer representatives visited local markets together to expand sales channels. Also, a WhatsApp group was created, which involves MoA officers, farmers and buyers to exchange information.
Mr. Hamweete Osbert, Principal Agricultural Officer of the Luapula Province, continued “we have done more work to strengthen the collaboration of stakeholders. For example, in cooperation with MOReDeP, an event was conducted to enable farmers to have information from agricultural machinery suppliers and machine hire service providers about their products and services. We facilitate the talk between farmers and service providers sometimes. Hence, it is not unusual now that farmers gather resources and collectively hire tractors, which has enabled them to prepare more land efficiently”.
In 2023, the first rice mill in the Kawambwa district was established. Mr. Scott Montell, the owner of the rice mill stated that “Springboarding off the work that the Agriculture Department did in creating a local supply of rice, we saw a business opportunity to create a rice mill where local farmers could process the rice they cultivated, and sell it directly within their communities. Our mill is capable of processing approximately 1.5 tons of rice per hour. As the supply continues to increase and as local farmers see the profitability of this new crop, we intend to expand our mill to include destoning, grading and eventually packaging under a local brand name”.
According to Mr. Kunda, their efforts gradually enhanced the collaboration among stakeholders, which made it easy for farmers to have high profit from rice farming, and the success of such farmers inspired other farmers and more farmers began to engage in rice cultivation. The dissemination of rice farming cannot be successful without the development of the rice industry as a whole, and it is critical to emphasize collaboration among all relevant stakeholders. The Provincial and District Agriculture Offices are convinced of this as an indispensable aspect.
The Kawambwa District is located in the northwestern part of the Luapula province, comprising 43 camps and a total population of 124,046 (Zamstat, 2022 census). This district is characterized by expansive 80,000 hectares of marshland with abundant water resources. It is home to “Luena Farm Block” established by the Zambian government to promote commercial agriculture and economic growth.
