Poor potato output for Zambia

Zambia, which stands at number 26 in terms of annual Irish potato production in Africa, performs poorly in the sub-sector, according to 2013 data on Irish potato production for 2013.Since the 1970s, when Zambia was harvesting lower than 3,000 metric tonnes of potatoes a year, the country has been performing poorly compared to South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Angola and Mozambique, whose figures during the same period stood at 614,000 metric tonnes, 86,182 metric tonnes, 55,385 metric tonnes, 34,000 metric tonnes and 40,000 metric tonnes, respectively.The data compiled by  the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) notes that Zambia harvested a meagre 31,000 metric tonnes compared to Malawi with the highest output in southern Africa with 4,535,960 metric tonnes, South Africa which had 2,252,000 metric tonnes. 

Tanzania was at 1,767,540 metric tonnes, Angola produced 670,136 metric tonnes and Mozambique’s 200,000 metric tonnes.FAO lists Egypt as Africa’s biggest producer with 4,800,000 metric tonnes in 2013, followed by Malawi, while Burundi stood at the bottom of the top-20 with a yield of 122,904 metric tonnes.Other African countries covered in the 2013 potato cultivation data are Algerian, (4,400,000mt), Kenya (2,500,000mt), Rwanda (2,252,000mt), Morocco (1,928,610mt), Nigeria (1,200,200mt), Ethiopia (775,503mt) and Uganda (774,600mt).