The Avocado Growers Association has advised farmers in the country to consider diversifying to fruit farming which has proved to be lucrative.

Association Secretary Special Lungu told Money FM News in an interview that farmers should not only depend on maize and vegetables but must explore other agricultural ventures like Avocado growing and other fruits which have a lot of benefits.

Mr. Lungu said avocado is easy to grow and has a bigger export market that can help government in terms of Foreign Exchange.

“Farmers should avoid over dependency on growing maize, vegetables and other crops but diversify to fruits, avocado in particular because it has so many advantages,” he said.
He added that the avocado tree does not take long to produce fruits and has a life span of 35 years, hence the need for more farmers to consider venturing into the avocado farming.

“The period it takes to produce avocado is much shorter than other fruit tree. It starts producing in the third year after being planted and farmers benefit more than selling maize,” Mr. Lungu observed.
Mr. Lungu further noted that apart from being nutritious, avocado has so many health benefits as it cures certain diseases.