Agricultural tips - Crops, Livestock & Fisheries

By GLORIA SIWISHA CROP production is a major source of livelihood for most rural households in Eastern Province. However, experts in the region estimate that between 20 to 40 percent of this produce is lost  through post-harvest losses or those food losses that occur across the food supply chain from  harvesting of crop until its consumption. For example, World Food Programme (WFP) studies quote maize post-harvest losses in Zambia as being at 11% at harvesting; 8% at storage, 2% at transportation, 1% at processing, 1% packaging, and 2% at sales. Losses occur due to a number of reasons, among them, the inadequate storage facilities; poor handling, pests and diseases, and lack of enough labor to harvest and transport crops. Post-harvest losses, it is argued, disrupt food security efforts of smallholder farmers, and can act as a deterrent to their continued involvement and investment in agriculture. It’s because of the status quo that the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), workin

  By GLORIA SIWISHA   ONE of the concerns that communities have, especially those that live within and around zoonotic diseases endemic areas such as game parks, is the lack of information about how they can protect themselves and their livestock against such diseases.     It’s for this reason that Breakthrough ACTION conducted a content development training in Lusaka aimed at equipping Government staff from selected ministries with skills on how to develop digital messages on priority zoonotic diseases such as Human African trypanosomiasis, Bovine tuberculosis, and Brucellosis.     Jessica Phiri who is Risk Communication and Community Engagement officer at Breakthrough ACTION, said the objective of the training was to develop the capacities of health promotion officers, communication personnel, and social mobilisers from various ministries implementing the one health initiative, so that they were able to effectively communicate health risk messages on priority zoonotic diseases.     “