estment in
00 million
Ying, highlighted the fruitful achievements
of agricultural co-operation between China
and Africa. In a recent article published by
the People’s Daily, Wang writes that such cooperation helps African countries to accelerate
their agricultural development, strengthen their
potential for self-sufficiency and improve their
agricultural policy and industrial structure.
African countries offer vast lands and abundant
sunshine, while China has technology, capital
and market advantages. Through co-operation,
the two sides can make use of respective
advantages to generate mutual benefits. He
wrote that future co-operation should focus
on agricultural capacity building, technological
exchange, further investment and trade, and
food safety in Africa.
In the past few years, when Zambia’s maize
surpluses were rotting in FRA sheds, there was
no offer from China to buy Zambian maize. The
main reason is that the cost of transporting
the commodity to the port of Dar es Salaam is
There is growing
evidence that
Zambian efforts
to improve the
operational
efficiency of Tazara
is being deliberately
frustrated by the
Tanzanian trucking
industry which
thrives on powerful
connections
with the
Tanzanian political
establishment
prohibitively expensive on trucks. The Chinese
donated a perfectly serviceable 1800km railway
to Zambia and Tanzania in the 70s. Tazara,
as this gift is known, is jointly owned by the
governments of Tanzania and Zambia.
Plagued by incompetence, political mismanagement it carries a tiny fraction of its
capacity. There is growing evidence that
Zambian efforts to improve the operational
efficiency of Tazara is being deliberately
frustrated by the Tanzanian trucking industry
which thrives on powerful connections with
the Tanzanian political establishment.
It is these trucking companies, whose vehicles
swarm over the Nakonde border post into
Zambia, that have the greatest stake in the
continued failure of the Tazara railway.
This railway is the future of Zambian
agricultural exports to world markets and our
Dear Leaders would do well to address the Dar
mafia issue as a matter of urgency.
FARMERS GAZETTE
November 2015
29