9 Million Tonnes of Maize Target Locked

Former Zampost Postmaster General and businessman McPherson Chanda has sparked a fresh debate on national food security and agricultural policy by challenging Zambia to set a minimum annual maize production target of 9 million tonnes. In public commentary that has resonated across farming and economic circles, Chanda argued that celebrating annual outputs fluctuating between 3.5 and 5 million tonnes reflects a lack of long-term ambition given the country's vast arable land and ecological potential. Chanda pointed out that while national yields have historically hovered around an average of 3 tonnes per hectare over the past decade, existing science, technology, and modern agronomic practices could easily push output toward 10 tonnes per hectare. Achieving a 9-million-tonne harvest, he noted, would fundamentally transform the domestic economy by permanently driving down the cost of essential commodities such as stock feed, poultry, meat, and milk, while stabilizing the retail price of staple mealie meal. A core pillar of Chanda's proposal centers on addressing widespread soil acidity, which remains a hidden bottleneck for smallholder productivity across much of the country. Advocating for a robust national soil testing and liming campaign modeled on public health vaccination drives, he asserted that correcting soil pH levels using lime can double crop yields for maize, soya beans, and groundnuts. Experts agree that acidic soils severely limit nutrient absorption, neutralizing the effectiveness of chemical fertilizers even when applied on time. The debate arrives as Zambia continues to navigate climate vulnerabilities, having experienced severe droughts in previous cycles followed by strong recovery efforts and strategic state interventions. While the government has previously outlined ambitious broad-based agricultural transformation goals, including multi-million-tonne targets for major grains under the Comprehensive Agricultural Transformation Support Program (