The summer of the 2019/20 farming season is here, and this particular one meets a time when maize production is making rounds not only amongst people in the crop production sector in Zambia. Many people who use maize for food and livestock feed in this country and beyond are also ardent maize planters.

Maize is, as a matter of fact, the world’s most cultivated grain, and with the recent effects of climate change manifesting itself as drought/floods and an influx of pests like the fall army worm, maize crop production has been affected in more ways than one.

These factors range from increased cost of production, owing to the added cost of pest control, to reduced production and productivity per unit area, particularly for Zambia. In the recent past, Zambian farmers recorded averages of more than 2 tonnes per hectare, compared to last season’s 1,47 tonnes as reported by the Central Statistics Office and Ministry of Agriculture.