Lusaka - Exiled white Zimbabwean farmers have helped Zambia break a crippling food shortage that saw millions rely on food aid last season.
The roughly 100 Zimbabwean exile families have settled in central Zambia's fertile maize-growing district of Mkushi. Even critics have conceded they have revolutionised commercial agriculture by introducing hi-tech commercial techniques through partnerships with local landowners.
They have been so successful that Zambia's Investment Centre has issued certificates for 31 Zimbabweans to begin commercial farming in their own name and on their own, newly-acquired land.
Now Zambia's government intends luring even more disillusioned Zimbabwean farmers across the border - regardless of possible strains to relations between Lusaka and Harare.
"People initially saw them as the enemy, seeking refuge in Zambia. Because they were white, people were also scared that racism would resurface," said Deputy Agriculture Minister Chance Kabaghe.
He said that even people in the government thought there should be solidarity with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and that the farmers should be refused entry.
"But we saw them as potential investors who could improve our food security. We have now been vindicated."
The exiles fled to Zambia after being forced off their properties in Zimbabwe during the fast-track land reform programme that began in 2000.
They rented land from the locals or went into partnership with owners who did not have the capacity to till huge tracts.
The official support for the Zimbabweans forms part of a wider, multi-pronged strategy to revive Zambia's agricultural sector, reeling from the effects of two successive droughts, with a shortfall of 635 000 tons of grain last year. - African Eye News Service/IPS