Indian firm pumps K50m into Soya farming

INDIA’s Gourock Plantations Limited,  has established a joint Soya beans and sunflower plantation at Luswishi farm bloc in Lufwanyama District to the tune of K50 million.

Lufwanyama District Commissioner Alex Kalela said the over 700 hectare Luswishi farm bloc has been demarcated into 650 hectares for soya beans and 52 hectares for the sunflower plantation.

Mr Kalela said in an interview that the project has already created 96 permanent jobs, with the firm targeting to create a further 2,000 jobs for the people in and around Lufwanyama District.

“Gourock plantations of India have invested K50 million in a soya beans and sunflower plantation at Luswishi farm bloc here where 2,000 new jobs are targeted to be created,” Mr Kalela said.

He said the project would promote crop diversification as farming in the district has been made easy by the availability of excess land and inputs.

Mr Kalela said the project would also bring about a lot of benefits for Lufwanyama as entrepreneurs would want to establish industries to support value addition.

He said other than mining; there were many other sectors which investors could exploit to expand business activities in the district.

“There are a lot of economic benefits in store for the district more so that,  the Government is upgrading road infrastructure under the link Zambia 8,000 project,” he said.