GUEST ARTICLE: Maize means money - Why 10 million tonnes will feed Zambia, fund Zambia and employ Zambia.

By Whitney Mulobela

President Hakainde Hichilema's Grow Zambia agenda, unveiled at his 1 September inauguration, sets eight production targets for 2031 — 10·10·5·3·3·1·1·1. The first number is 10 million tonnes of maize a year. We produce 3–4 million in a good year; last season hit a record 5.1 million. Ten million is not a vanity target. It allows to feed, fund and employ Zambia.

We are past 20 million people and add 700,000 a year. At 10 million tonnes, we feed every citizen, every school under Free Education and every feedlot, and still hold a 3 million-tonne reserve. The 2024 drought showed what shortage costs. Ten million means we never queue for mealie meal again.

Countries like Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and the DRC import over 2 million tonnes of white maize a year, often from Mexico and Ukraine at $400 a tonne. We can deliver at $260–280 from Chipata and Nakonde. Export 3–4 million tonnes and that is US$840 million to US$1.12 billion a year in grown forex, before we add value through mealie meal, feed, starch, ethanol and Zambian-branded cereals on shelves from Nairobi to Kinshasa. The US$1 billion beef target also runs on maize feed.

Ten million tonnes is grown by 1.2 million smallholders moving from 2 to 5 hectares with irrigation, mechanisation and guaranteed off-take, plus 300,000 technicians, agronomists, drivers and millers. That is why the 30 realigned ministries matter: Lands for titles, Electricity for power, Skills for training, Trade & Exports for markets. Not bigger government — focused government, with an accountable minister for every target.

It has worked before. Brazil opened the Cerrado and went from 20 million tonnes of maize in 1980 to over 130 million today. Ethiopia reached wheat self-sufficiency in 2023.

Now, Zambian businesses must step up. Zamseed, Antelope, Pembe, our transporters and community banks: move from trading to producing. Make out-grower schemes bankable. Own the value chain.

"We will grow it, process it, and sell it." — President Hichilema.

Maize means money. Grow it, and Zambia feeds herself, earns dollars from Dar es Salaam to Juba, and keeps our young people in jobs at home.