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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

ZAMBIA DEVELOPMENT

We are delighted to have formed a strategic partnership with Lifecycle Development Assistance - Zambia.

Zambia is one of the most exciting countries we have been to recently. Bordered by many of the more troublesome African nations, the  country seems like a peaceful haven of democracy and massive economic potential.  Of course copper and tobacco have been, and remain, the mainstays of the economy, but the government is making a concerted effort to tackle infrastructure and diversify the agricultural economy especially in the smallholder sector.

Carl Mallinson of LDA-Zambia looks at tobacco fields
 that the company aims to diversify into food crops
We have allied with LDA-Zambia which is a not-for-profit company set up to bring diversification from tobacco to the large and poor Eastern Province. LDA-Zambia also incorporates Trees For Life, a company that specializes on the propogation of various tree species that are sold to farmers or distributed to charitable or community-based organizations.

We'll provide more information as we begin to work with LDA-Zambia but for the start our focus is on soybean processing - looking at the feasibility for getting a 70 ton/day hexane-based extraction factory back into production. The factory will buy soybeans at a  fair trade price from smallholders and turn them into oil for cooking and protein meal for animal feed.

For more information on LDA-Zambia contact Carl Mallinson on carlmallinson@gmail.com