US Treasury Secretary Recognises Zambia’s Agricultural Potential

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spent the final day of her visit to Zambia visiting a farm outside Lusaka and a ramen noodle manufacturing plant in the capital to demonstrate Zambia’s potential in helping end world food shortages.

Halfway through her 10-day tour of Africa, Yellen spent time with local farmers, many of them women, through a green climate fund, and reiterated the US goal of helping to realise “a future where Africa participates more fully in global food and fertiliser markets and supply chains”. 

The Treasury Secretary discussed food insecurity and resulting hunger’s toll on many communities around the world, and spoke of how the U.S. had resolved to take strong and immediate action to alleviate hunger.

Africa holds 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated land. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema yesterday attended the beginning of the Dakar II Food Summit in Senegal, among whose objectives in solving world hunger is to expand Africa’s agricultural output from $280 billion/year to $1 trillion by 2030. 

Secretary Yellen directly recognised the role Africa has to play, observing, “It is a continent that faces acute food needs. But it is the one that also has the potential not only to feed itself but also to help feed the world – if the right steps are taken.”

Members of the local Chongwe green climate fund, Climate Resilience of Agricultural Livelihoods in Agro-Ecological Regions in Zambia, told Secretary Yellen about their efforts to establish sustainable livestock supplies, and recent collective savings groups which have funded silos for grain. One participant in the Twalumbu Savings Group spoke of recent agricultural hardship, saying, “It’s been a big challenge for us, but we are successful.”

After visiting the farm, Yellen was taken to Java Foods Limited, a women-owned company producing low-cost, nutritionally fortified instant noodles. Its market audience is low-income urban consumers, and 100% of the wheat is sourced from Zambian farmers.

Java Foods has received funding under USAID’s Feed the Future program. Founder Monica Musonda told Janet Yellen that her firm and other similar manufacturers “are trying to make an impact in our community – you can see what we women can do.”

Accompanying her on her visits was Zambia’s acting Agricultural Minister Gary Nkombo, who said around 150 families had benefited from a UN-funded program in Chongwe, which focuses on conservation farming.

Last month, many African leaders, including President Hichilema, met at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Among the commitments made were to strengthen investments between Africa and the U.S. Secretary Yellen’s interest in local projects and the role the U.S. can play in Zambia unlocking its agricultural potential.

Image taken from Voa.