Agriculture

Investing in Agriculture in Zambia offers lucrative opportunities due to the huge potential to expand its agricultural production.

Area

Zambia is endowed with a large arable land resource base of 42 million hectares of which only 1.5 million hectares is cultivated every year.

Water resources

It has abundant water resources for irrigation, as shown by the Country accounting for 40 percent of the water resource in the SADC region.

Potential

Given its vast resource endowment, Zambia has huge potential to expand its agricultural production.

Why Invest?

Zambia’s climate follows a similar pattern to that of most Southern African countries, experiencing rainy seasons between the months of November and April. The dry season is characterized by low humidity between the months of May and November. The average temperature in the summer is 30°C and gets as low as 5°C in the winter.

Despite the availability of vast arable land, transport infrastructure, availability of water, cheap labour, as shown by the fact that the Agricultural sector employs more than half of the total labour force, only 10 percent of the arable land is under cultivation. In that regard, the Government has established farming blocks to facilitate investment in Agriculture.

Investment Incentives

No price, foreign exchange or interest rate controls
100% repatriation of net profits
0% Tax for tourist services and mining products for export
0% Tax on profits and dividends for companies operating in industrial parks
Tax-exempt dividends for farmers for the first 5 years
VAT refund for purchase and export of Zambian products for manufacturing
10-year carry period for mining losses

Projects and opportunities

Farm Block Development Programme

The Government of the Republic of Zambia identiﬁed Agriculture as the Engine to Economic development as well as the Main stay of the Economy. In 2002 GRZ embarked on development and commercialization of agriculture land as the Farm Block Development Programme (FBDP). This programme entailed availing land for large scale agribusiness investment for the private sector.

Livestock Breeding Centers

The project is for the establishment of livestock breeding and artiﬁcial insemination centers across the country. This will involve the breeding of animals such as cattle, sheep and goats among others. Access roads, electricity and airport are available in ideal areas of Chipata and Katete Districts of Eastern Province. The project is still at concept stage.

Aquaculture Development

The project is for the establishment of cage ﬁsh farming ventures on the Lakes Meru and Bangweulu. 5 sites have been identiﬁed and Environmental Project Briefs have been conducted along the shores of Lake Mweru which are not more than 2 kilometers from the main road and power supply lines. Land for processing and storage facilities has been reserved.

Procedures for Agriculture Investors

Company registration- www.pacra.org.zm
TPIN registration- www.zra.org.zm
ZDA Investment Certificate
Business license registration-Local authority
For Farms with land size over 5,000 ha, Environmental Impact Assessment from ZEMA
Import and export- Agribusiness Department or Zambia Government Service bus for the particular permits