Friday, March 29, 2024

Mwata Kazembe asks for palm tree seedlings

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Mwata Kazembe of the Lunda people in Luapula Province has appealed to Government to consider providing palm oil seedlings to his subjects.

The Mwata Kazembe said his area had favourable conditions for palm oil tree cultivation.
He made the appeal when Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Jazzman Chikwakwa and provincial Agriculture Coordinating Officer (PACO) Odineya Chisala paid a courtesy call on him at his palace during inspection of the palm oil plantation project in his area.

The Mwata commended government for the palm oil project but observed that it would be more helpful if households could also be supplied with the seedlings to plant.

He noted that once his subjects were empowered with the plants, government would cut off the trouble of sourcing for land where to plant the trees.

The Mwata Kazembe said cost of maintaining the palm trees would be reduced because individual households would be given manageable quantities of plants unlike when a single farmer is given a lot of plants to manage alone.

Last month, government imported an improved variety of 20,000 seedlings of palm trees from Costa Rica at a cost of $20,000 United States Dollars in an effort to economically empower the local people.

Luapula is the only Province where this project is being undertaken.

ZANIS/AM/CMM/MKM/ENDS.

12 COMMENTS

  1. This sounds good. i hope there is a proper plan for this project after a feasibility study. An out-grower scheme could help avoid displacement of locals while also empowering them with a source of income as long as they become serious and adhere to quality standards.

  2. Good thinking chief! On the other hand, for sustainability, can’t Mount Makulu develop the seedlings?

  3. Wasn’t this project first instigated to increase the levels of vitamin A in the local diet? Lack of vitamin A was seen as a major cause of the high rates of blindness in the province. So am not sure whether this is meant to be a commercial venture or whether it is meant to improve the nutritional intake of the local people which would then inform the strategies that would be undertaken.

  4. This is great. I think chiefs should have a much greater role in the development of their areas. At least most have their people’s interests at heart.

    I would like to see a situation where 50% of national revenues ($550 million in 2004) was distributed to local councils, making money available at council level.

    What is left could go to finance projects like suggested by Mwatat Kazembe.

    What if chiefs had an official position in local government? As unelected individuals, they should have a ceremonial role, but they could help direct attention to local priorities, with money available at the local level instead of ministerial level.

  5. This is a great move on the part of paramount Chief Kazembe. Initiatives like these are empowering Zambians to be self reliant & not rely on Govt or blam Govt for everything.

  6. This project and type of cultivation should have been introduced 44 years ago…..
    It takes donkey years to bear its first fruits and yield.. many years…

  7. why RGZ import all the way from Costa rica meanwhile West africa has in abundance-they would have even given the plants for free

  8. Now this sounds reasonable on face value but, producing palm oil for biodiesel is not ecologically sound because we are introducing non-native flora to Zambia. The Portuguese brought maize into central Africa and killed the natural cereal which had adapted to the land for aeons. Let us concetrate on indegenous plants. There is plenty of money in what we already have if only we leant how to manage it properly.

  9. No.10 you asking why GRZ imported this seed from Costarica…. nipa Zed pano nkani yama CUT. try to find out who initiated this, you willl see

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