Horticultural Innovation Centre
AgriSmart Zambia has established and runs a Regional African Centre for Horticultural Innovation together with the University of Zambia on the grounds of the University of Zambia (UNZA) in Lusaka. This is a public: private sector partnership approved by the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture and supported by the Zambian Ministry of Trade and Commerce. Our Horticultural Innovation Centre is the only one of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa and its main function is as a centre of agricultural excellence to build capacity and knowledge to strengthen the Zambian agricultural sector.
The centre’s high profile location within the grounds of Zambia’s top university, adjacent to the university’s Agricultural Faculty, is extremely beneficial and convenient for its role as a training and demonstration centre for a wide range of international innovations within the agricultural sector and to showcase the production of high value agricultural and horticultural crops.
The facility continuously serves as a demonstration and practical training centre to students, academic and government researchers and technicians, government extension officers and small scale farmers amongst others. AgriSmart Zambia’s international affiliations with agricultural institutions also provides Zambians with access to leading international horticultural scientists from the USA and South Africa.
The centre works in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Commerce in focussing on market access issues such as Food Safety and Minimum Standards in co-operation with the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) to facilitate retail market access within Zambia and the broader Southern African region for Zambian small holder farmers.
This facility operates using a business model as a revenue centre from grants, fees-for-services, donors as well as additional private sector partnerships, for example for agricultural mechanization and other equipment and allied supplies such as fertilizers, seeds and plants.
The site is managed in co-operation with the University of Zambia and Emil van Wyk is the Centre Director.
