The Center for Trade Policy and Development encourages farmers to take advantage of the available market in neighbouring DRC for agriculture and livestock products.

CTPD Head of Programmes Brian Mwiinga says farmers and other traders lack certain information on how they take advantage of the available market.

Speaking when he featured on Money FM Business Radio’s Policy, Power and Money Programme this morning, Mr. Mwiinga says it is worrying that even traders from DRC buy goats from Zambia cheaply and sale the same goats at a reasonable price at Kasumbalesa saying Zambians should take advantage of this market.

And Mr. Mwiinga has advised the government to invest heavily in the agriculture sector noting that the K5.4 million allocated to the agriculture sector is not motivating.

“If you look at 2018 national budget, K1.1 million was allocated to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) and this year it has reduced to K672 million. This entails you that we will have problems next year as FRA may face serious challenges in procuring the crops from the farmers,” he said.

The CTPD Head of Programmes is also happy that Zambia has good agricultural policies but what lacks is proper implementation.