1)    Welcome to Agritech Expo! What would you consider as particular highlights for Strongpak as a business during 2015? 
Strongpak has been servicing the farmers and the agricultural sector in Zambia since long. We were one of the regular visitors at the previous exhibition and found it a useful interactive platform for Agro businesses. 

In 2015, as was in previous years, Strongpak continued to be a packaging partner to various fertilizer companies (Zambian Fertiliser, Green Belt Fertilizer, Profert Fertilizer), along with supplying packaging bags to Food Reserve Agency of Zambia and sugar companies like Zambia Sugar etc. Also being a successful packaging partner with the cement & lime companies in Zambia and neighbouring countries we really feel proud to stay closer to the people of Zambia through our packaging solutions.

 
   
2)    Any exciting new products or projects that are in the offing for this year?
Strongpak, within a small period has established itself as a strong, reliable and innovative company in the manufacturing and supply of top quality pp woven bags for various sectors. Through our continuous improvement efforts and commitment to serve our valued customers with new products, we shall be introducing a classic small block bottom bags to pack 20 kgs material for tile adhesive manufactures in Zambia. This new product would also help the country save more foreign exchange outflow as in the case with cement & lime bags where there will be no requirement of importing these bags from other countries. 

 


   
3)    Zambia’s agricultural sector is facing some challenges currently, including the drought – your thoughts in how the agri community can overcome these challenges?
Zambia is blessed with bountiful resources in terms of water and fertile soil. With the current scenario wherein the copper mining sector has slowed down due to unattractive prices, the burden of growing the economy will have to be shouldered by other sectors; especially the agricultural sector is better placed to grow the economy. With the current trend of rainfall and the concerns about climate change, the farmers are facing challenges to sustain the production levels. But these challenges can be overcome by utilising the facilities like water harvesting during rain, using drip irrigation, bio-fertilizers & chemicals and various other advanced proven technologies to increase the productivity. The co-operatives and Government should educate & empower the small farmers on the effective utilisation of resources (seed, water, fertilizer) through scientific technologies to maximise their output. 

4)    What makes the agricultural sector in Zambia exciting?
As we all know that Zambia has vast unutilized cultivable land and the focus of late has been concentrated on the main crop like maize to address the food security. But with the vast available fertile land which has been bestowed by nature there is huge opportunity of growing cash crops like sunflower, wheat, soybean, cotton, coffee, tea, barley, macadamia nuts and horticultural crops, floriculture and vegetables in Zambia which could be exported to neighboring countries and other overseas markets. There lies a huge untapped market opportunity, which makes the agricultural sector exciting and promising for the future.

5)    How important is Agritech Expo as an annual forum for the farming sector in this region?
The agricultural sector in Zambia as a commercial domain is independent and self sustainable. The efforts of ZNFU (Zambia National Farmers Union) and various other regional farmers’ co-operatives have brought the farmers under one roof, thereby enhancing the facilitation and sharing of knowledge. Agritech Expo as an annual forum not only serves as interactive forum for all the commercial and peasant farmers but educates them with wide range of latest technological developments in the agricultural sector. The display of newest equipments by the global manufacturers empowers the local farming sector with the required information to increase their farm product yield.

6)    What will be your message at Agritech Expo this year? Are you displaying anything new and exciting for the sector/region?
We are a proudly Zambian manufacturing company and feel excited to associate ourselves with the Agritech Expo whereby we are able to stand by our theme “Strongpak Ltd- Your trusted packaging partner” and our vision of “Looking beyond Horizon”. We endeavour walking the extra mile to bring the satisfaction and smile to our valued customers.
  
7)    Anything else you would like to add?
I would like to wish all the exhibitors and the people associated with the farming sector all the very best as they continue to grow and progress in this noble business.

Time has flown by and it is time for Agritech Expo again! What are the innovations and new features of the event that visitors and partners can look forward to this year?
Time flies indeed! Agritech Expo has become the biggest event on our agricultural calendar. As you visit Agritech Expo 2016, look out for our new Energy Park designed to offer you innovation and cleaner energy solutions to help you wipe away your electricity outage blues and the ever increasing costs of energy. Our extended Livestock Zone is another must-see area, for you definitely need the right stock genetics and technologies to survive climate change-induced vagaries of weather. Our Expo will, for the first time, also feature live Centre Pivot demonstrations, a very critical feat as Zambian agriculture focuses and seeks to expand irrigated farming at all levels.  The all new 4x4 Test Track is another feature that will finally help you decide which 4x4 work horse is best for your farm. We heard you and we have also extended the SME Zone to make sure we bring in as many agro SMEs as possible. This is important to us as we strive to show case the Zambian agricultural industry in totality.
 

Caption:  Zambian President, H.E Mr Edgar Lungu (middle),  Dr Evelyn Nguleka, ZNFU President (second from right) and Zambia’s Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, H.E. Given Lubinda (far right) listen to a presentation during Agritech Expo in April 2015.

What would you consider as particular highlights for ZNFU as an organisation during 2015?
Our EXPO 2015 will go as one of our major milestones during 2015. Other major 2015 ZNFU milestones included: (i) the successful scaling-up of our prepaid VISA card platform to include  over 241,000 GRZ's Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) beneficiaries in 13 pilot districts; (ii) successful lobby for inclusion of all Zambian agricultural export products into the recently signed Bilateral Trade Agreements between Zambia  with DRC and Angolan; (iii) facilitation with other stakeholders full operationalisation of the warehouse receipt system under the Zambia Agricultural Commodities Exchange (ZAMACE);  and (iv) sustained cordial working relationship with the Zambian Government and other key stakeholders. 

Any exciting new projects apart from Agritech Expo that are in the offing for this year?
Our EU funded Agriculture Service Centers Project designed to build four modern one-stop agro-inputs and output marketing centres is another exciting project we have embarked on. The rolling out of the ZNFU core brand prepaid Visa cards to an additional 360,000 smallholder farmers under FISP in 41 districts is another exciting project that will see ZNFU facilitating financial inclusiveness to over 600,000 farmers who otherwise would have remained unbanked and unable to access financial services.

How important is Agritech Expo as an annual forum for the farming sector in this region?
It’s a very critical agricultural technologies and agribusiness forum, not only for Zambia but for our neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, DRC, Angola and Malawi. Agritech Expo has within its first two years opened up agribusiness opportunities for the above named countries in the region. Agritech Expo has also managed to attract 35+ regional and international countries.

How do you see the role of women in the agricultural sector?
In the recent past a number of women have taken keen interest in efficiency and profitability when it comes to farming. I think a number of women would now want to be mechanised and empowered with knowledge in order to do their production well. I foresee a lot of participation from women in trying to get knowledge on their own, and not sending others to attend on their behalf. This is an exciting driver to end poverty going forward.

What will be your message at Agritech Expo this year?
As farmers we have the destiny of our country and nation in our hands. Let us apply all the knowledge and skills to have more food and we need and venture into value addition to earn incomes for ourselves. If we can move from our back row as primary producers we can shape the welfare of the industry.

Zambia’s agricultural sector is facing some challenges currently, including the drought – your thoughts in how the agri community can overcome these challenges?
Climate change is first and foremost not peculiar to Zambia. It’s a global problem. Secondly, climate stress in not new to farmers and so farmers have innovated and adapted to the challenges that we face. We need to stay in contact with others to learn and observe, to push for policies that will help us adapt. We also need to be careful with what we already have. Food wastage is something that we need to deal with from harvest to the fork. As a country we have enough resources to feed the region, we need policies that can make it profitable and less complicated to produce food.

What makes the agricultural sector in Zambia exciting?
Zambia is blessed with abundant water, land, climate that has no extremes and also it has a young population making labour available at all stages of the food chain. The political stability is another bonus to our country. Market to other countries is possible with good infrastructure and policies with our neighbours. We can grow virtually anything in our country but a lot of help is need knowledge transfer, cost of borrowing and storage capacities.