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1 AKTC Opening of the Office Building, Trainee Accommodation and the Photo Voltaic-System The Agricultural sector continues to be the backbone of the Zambian economy. According the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) sector profile (2011), Primary Agriculture contribute about 35 percent to the country’s total non-traditional exports (all the country’s exports other than copper and cobalt) and about 10 percent of the total export earnings for the country. This contribution is considerably small than what it’s full potential can offer. For instance, Zambia’s territory is 75 million hectares (752,000 km2) large, of which 58% (42 million hectares) is classified as medium to high potential for agriculture production. However, out of 58% arable land, about 15% of this land is currently under cultivation (Zambia Agriculture Statistics, 2013). One of the key drawbacks that have led to underutilization of this land is failure to adopt Agricultural Mechanization especially among the emergent farmers of Zambia. About 80-90% of the emergent farmers in Zambia own large portions of arable land, but only manage to cultivate small potions mainly due to limited man power, finance and skills in Agricultural Mechanization (AKTC 2017 baseline survey). Most of these farmers indeed have their potential underutilized in developing their communities and the nation at large simply because they are left helpless in adopting new farming technologies. In order to contribute to the promotion of Mechanization in Agriculture, the Zambian- German Agricultural Knowledge and Training Centre (AKTC) was established in Zambia in August 2014 at GART Chaloshi farm. The training Centre had no accommodation facility for its trainees nor offices for its staff at the time of inception. The AKTC staff were accommodated in a 20m2 office at GART, whereas the trainees would come and go back home for trainings that took place for more than a day. This was somehow a challenge for both the AKTC staff and the trainees. For this reason, interventions of building the new office facility for the staff and accommodation house for the trainees at GART Chaloshi farm were made and the offices and accommodation were finally built.

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AKTC Opening of the Office Building, Trainee Accommodation and the Photo Voltaic-System

The Agricultural sector continues to be the backbone of the Zambian economy. According the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) sector profile (2011), Primary Agriculture contribute about 35 percent to the country’s total non-traditional exports (all the country’s exports other than copper and cobalt) and about 10 percent of the total export earnings for the country. This contribution is considerably small than what it’s full potential can offer.

For instance, Zambia’s territory is 75 million hectares (752,000 km2) large, of which 58% (42 million hectares) is classified as medium to high potential for agriculture production. However, out of 58% arable land, about 15% of this land is currently under cultivation (Zambia Agriculture Statistics, 2013). One of the key drawbacks that have led to underutilization of this land is failure to adopt Agricultural Mechanization especially among the emergent farmers of Zambia.

About 80-90% of the emergent farmers in Zambia own large portions of arable land, but only manage to cultivate small potions mainly due to limited man power, finance and skills in Agricultural Mechanization (AKTC 2017 baseline survey). Most of these farmers indeed have their potential underutilized in developing their communities and the nation at large simply because they are left helpless in adopting new farming technologies.

In order to contribute to the promotion of Mechanization in Agriculture, the Zambian-German Agricultural Knowledge and Training Centre (AKTC) was established in Zambia in August 2014 at GART Chaloshi farm. The training Centre had no accommodation facility for its trainees nor offices for its staff at the time of inception. The AKTC staff were accommodated in a 20m2 office at GART, whereas the trainees would come and go back home for trainings that took place for more than a day.

This was somehow a challenge for both the AKTC staff and the trainees. For this reason, interventions of building the new office facility for the staff and accommodation house for the trainees at GART

Chaloshi farm were made and the offices and accommodation were finally built.

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On the 13th of April, 2018 the honorable Minister of Agriculture Mr. Michael Katambo launched the opening of the new AKTC offices, the accommodation house and the 450kwh solar photo voltaic system. The event was attended by an entourage of senior government officials from both countries, Zambia and Germany, led by the GART Director Dr. Muyunda. This group of officials included:

• The honorable Provincial Minister, Central Province of Zambia Mr. Mushanga, • The German Ambassador to Zambia Mr. Achim Burkart, • The Director General, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in German Mr.

Neumann, • The permanent secretary for Central Province of Zambia Mr. Kabwe and many

more other senior government officials.

New office building

With the opening of the new offices, AKTC staff will now be able to execute their duties and responsibilities in a more conducive and hygiene sound environment. The new AKTC office building consists of 3 offices, 2 toilets, 1shower room, 1 Kitchen and one store room.

Trainee accommodation

On the other hand, the now opened accommodation house for the trainees consists of:

• Conference room • 2x lockable 2 bed rooms • 2x lockable 4 bed rooms • 4x open 4 bed rooms • Shower and toilets for both male and female • A kitchen in a separate building

Basically, this accommodation facility is a copy of a typical dormitory of a boarding school and can accommodate a total of 28 people. Since it is a basic accommodation house, this serves the purpose of AKTC being a training Centre. In order to keep this facility running in a good condition, an affordable fee is attached to those who will seek for accommodation during trainings. With the opening of this

accommodation facility, AKTC will now be able to:

• Increase the catchment area for trainees to the whole of Zambia.

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• Broaden the target group, maybe even to third party organizations. • Offer comprehensive trainings, which will be longer than only one day. • Hold conferences and meetings • Offer accommodation to the private sector partners during events such as the

AgriTech Expo. • Offer accommodation to both local and international trainees and students on

attachments. • Additionally, the training house will play a major role in the development of

sustainable concept of the training Centre.

Photo voltaic system

Furthermore, the launch of the 450KWh soar photo voltaic system will contribute to the project’s training mandate in the lines of clean energy.

The PV-system was installed by one of the AKTC private sector partner BayWa renewable energy as a pilot project at AKTC- GART Chaloshi farm in mid 2017.

This was after the realization that electricity generated by hydropower wasn’t sufficient enough to irrigate demo fields for the project because of frequent power outages and load shedding. The now installed PV-system produces up to 86kWp from the solar panels and the power produced by the panels can be stored in a 160kWh capacity battery system. The PV-system ensures a 13 hour continuous energy supply with PV and batteries mainly for the irrigation of a 9ha pivot. It currently supplies power to:

• 3 borehole pumps • 1 booster pump, which pumps the water into the pivot system • The AKTC offices and • The AKTC newly opened trainee house.

In January 2018, the PV-system covered for the first time 50% of the total energy requirements and therefore cut the energy costs by 50%. Currently, the whole system supplies over 450kWh per day on average. To produce this amount of electricity by generators, a 150ltrs of diesel would be needed per day, thus the system saves 145 tons of CO2 per year. At present, the PV-system at AKTC is the largest solar system used for irrigation in Zambia.

The system already attracts a number of visitors not only from the Agriculture sector. Among the interested parties are for example the farmers, safari lodges, camps and community leaders. AKTC and the partner BayWa renewable energy are very confident

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that the solar PV-system can play a vital role in the promotion of renewable energy use in the whole Zambia. This can in turn lead to a developed Zambia through:

• Electrification of communities that are far away from the national grid. • Electrification of farms which can now be developed even far away from the

grid • Electrification of remote tourist destinations such as safari lodges, and • Above all, the solar PV-system serves like a crop insurance during winter in case

of power cuts and load shedding for many farms in crop production.

AgriTech Expo

After the launch of the facilities mentioned above, AKTC joined the rest of the stakeholders in the Agriculture sector in exhibiting at the 2018 Zambia’s AgriTech Expo event. The event which featured a record number of more than 18000 visitors, seven international pavilions and a VIP attendance that included five cabinet ministers was graced by the Zambian President Edgar Lungu who visited the event for the third year in a row.

For AKTC, this was once more an opportunity to exhibit the short term courses offered at the training center. AKTC had an opportunity to showcase its services to the public at two separate stands, one in the German Pavilion and the other one, in the pavilion shared by GART, ZARI, CFU and SCCI. Apart from the thousands of visitors who visited the two stands, the republican president of Zambia Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu also visited both stands. While at the AKTC stand, the German ambassador to Zambia Mr. Achim Burkart explained the mandate of AKTC in Zambia to the republican president Mr. Edgar Chagwa

Lungu.

The 2018 AgriTech expo was indeed an exciting moment for the AKTC team. The event not only created an opportunity for AKTC to showcase its services, but it was also a platform of exchange of ideas with the farmers and other stakeholders in the Agriculture sector for the success of both AKTC and its clients.

AKTC is thankful to the 2018 AgriTech expo organizers and also to everyone that visited the AKTC stand.

Article by: Helmut Anschuetz Grenda Mweemba