Agriculture is an important sector of the Zambian economy with massive potential for growth. Water and arable land are available in abundance, together with a stable and enabling infrastructure. Apart from financing mechanisms, access to reasonably priced agricultural inputs is essential, primarily consisting of agrochemicals, fertiliser and seeds. However, with increased sensitivity to environmental issues, a more sustainable farming approach is being promoted in Zambia, embracing crop rotation, minimum tillage and organic fertilisers.
Crop producers may have a lot of challenges to overcome, such as virus and pest infestations, poor soil quality, environmental degradation, and low rainfall. To mitigate against these factors, appropriate and sustainable agricultural inputs are essential for the Zambian farming community, in order to boost productivity and enhance food security. Though the types of inputs are numerous, they can be grouped into just two broad categories:
A reliable supply of agricultural inputs is needed alike by smallholders, commercial farmers, and distributors. In Zambia, private input suppliers have largely replaced parastatals and now provide an increasing volume of diverse agricultural inputs. Infobwana lists some of these above.
Some agricultural inputs available in this category