Bilateral Meeting with H.E. Reuben Mtolo Phiri, Minister for Agriculture of the Republic of Zambia

Rome - The FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met today with His Excellency Reuben Mtolo Phiri, Minister for Agriculture of the Republic of Zambia at FAO Headquarters on the margins of the 2024 World Food Forum.

The Director-General welcomed the Minister and thanked him for the strong partnership and support extended to the Organization by the Government of Zambia throughout the years. He further commended the Government for the commitment it had demonstrated in agrifood system transformation in the country. The Director-General also stressed the importance of strong cooperatives to improve food production and food security by strengthening smallholder farmers.

The Minister thanked the Director-General for the invitation and congratulated him on the exemplary leadership that was reflected in the work of the Organization in Zambia, in Africa and in the world. The Minister reiterated the importance of including smallholder farmers to improve food production. He stated that Zambia suffered from food insecurity induced by drought in 2023, which affected 11 million people of which 84 districts were severely affected and as a result, the government was engaged with a two-pronged approach to mitigate food insecurity and malnutrition. The approach entails immediate and future reliefs, to assist people through social transfers, cash for work and enhanced cash transfers. He stated that the government had also focused on pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to prevent malnutrition of newborn children.

The Minister stated that in the long term, the government was focused on improving energy efficiency through solar energy, as well as on irrigation systems development and mechanization to improve agriculture. He asked for support from FAO to enhance and facilitate support for forestry and aquaculture and requested technical support to improve agricultural policies on soil fertility analysis. He also requested technical assistance for farming block development.

The Director-General reaffirmed his commitment to scale-up FAO’s technical support for aquaculture and for soil mapping to increase productivity, to transform the economy and to improve agrifood systems transformation. He encouraged the government to invest in innovation and to organize smallholder farmers to improve food production.