At Mulongushi University, history is being written. The story being told is not only one of academic prowess. It is also a reflection of a lifetime dedicated to agriculture, enterprise, and service. This story is best told by the people who have watched it unfold over the decades: farmers, chiefs, colleagues, and friends.
It is the story of a cow herder who established himself as an undisputed ranching expert and eventually transforming into a leader and a trailblazer in diversified agribusiness. Hakainde Hichilema, once a barefoot boy herding cattle, now commands multiple farms across the country, a herd of several thousand cattle, a modern abattoir processing over 100 head daily and employs hundreds of people nationwide.
This is not just farming. This is vision in motion.
Childhood and roots. As a boy, he rose before dawn to tend cattle. Those early lessons in discipline and responsibility shaped the man he would become.
I know HH, known him for years. Not that I know HH because he's now a politician. No, I know him. First of all, I saw his mother with a pregnancy until a child was born, was little while young, 5 years age. He was going to manga manga in the bush and we still had a lot of... he was not even threatened of anything. I believe he came up with that heart of love for animals. He built that love for animals while he was young. He was very intelligent in school. There will be no one person from early stage whether standard A or grade one in any examination who will say that he beat Hakainde in one examination. No one. I would say he has been determined from... you probably it might have been a gift from God. I don't know. So probably God made him focus things ahead himself. I don't know. But I feel proud because he has never dropped his thermometer that it goes down at any single time. Every time with a thermometer is just higher like malaria.
Even as he built a successful career in accountancy, the farm always called him back. He fused business discipline with agricultural passion and transformed Zambia's livestock industry.
I think for me it's an exciting thing having a president with agricultural background. I think it's something agriculture is a long-term industry. It's a long-term business. There's no quick buck in agriculture. It's something you planning. Everything's a 12-month planning period. And there's no, as I said, there's no quick buck. And in terms of running a country, it's the same thing. There's no quick everything. You've got to have a long-term plan and have the courage and the conviction to follow through with that long-term plan. And the results come at the end. So again, I think the patience and long-term view that agriculture instills in one is a huge asset in whether one's running a country or running a business. So again, no farmers, no food. And if you just take a look at Zambia, Zambia National Farmers Union had 800,000 paid up members. You can be sure each one of those farmers had 10 dependents at least. That's 8 million people out of a population of 18 million. So that's 44% of the population is dependent on agriculture. And I always say happy countries are countries with fertile soil and water. Zambia, we are blessed with fertile soils and we're blessed with water. If we use those resources properly, Zambia will be an incredible country and I firmly believe that.
The model at Naminwe Ranch, Nabo and Ia Farms, superior genetics and careful breeding produce resilient, high yield cattle. From the Choma feedlot to the Kalomo abattoir, every step is efficient, hygienic, and profitable.
Nothing is wasted. Beef for supermarkets and butcheries. Offals for informal traders. Hides and byproducts fueling new businesses. Zero waste, maximum value, community impact. But the true measure of a man's success is his impact on people.
Too many people I can't even count that he has helped. So all those villagers around there are using his animals. What other help do you think a person can do? All those people down that side are using this animal including down that side here, relatives and non-relatives. Relatives and non-relatives are using his animals. Uh-uh. So not any problem. Up to where you are seated. Where you are seated now, hundreds of people are having these animals. Up to where you are seated. Not that he was doing, he is doing.
Farmers supplied with bulls growing stronger herds through improved genetics. Communities thriving through the provision of dip tanks and shared infrastructure.
He has gone beyond just agriculture related projects. He has constructed schools, drilled boreholes, and set up medical facilities in the communities surrounding his farms.
Usually what we are doing when some communities come to visit the farm, they want to see me to get help from the farm. So we are doing those jobs, me and the boss, because we are within the small things you can't tell the boss come and help these people so they are looking at me.
New jobs, new markets, new futures built from the soil and the cattle of Zambia.
The ripple effects are clear. Incomes rise, children go to school, villages prosper, people have access to clean water and better medical facilities.
My name is Mambo Mike. I'm a beef trader. I'm a farmer too. I've been here, I've been trading beef from 2006 up to date. I supplied my first animal to this abattoir in 2006 when it opened. I was among the first traders that brought farmers, that brought animals here at the abattoir at Kalomo Agro Beef. When you talk of the community, especially the community, they come to this abattoir to buy radish. Farmers is a center point whereby they bring their animals for slaughter. So it has really helped farmers. It has really helped the community. I was a teacher. Then I decided to stop being a teacher. I went into business, animal business. I started supplying the abattoir. From the supplying of animals to the abattoir, I said I should have a farm. I bought a farm. From there while doing the business at the abattoir I said I need to own also animals to put on the farm. From animal one this time I'm animal 200 plus. I've built houses, I've taken my children to school, whichever school they want I take them because of... so with me I've really benefited from this abattoir and it is a place to... because you never go wrong when you are dealing with agro, when you are dealing with beef, especially at a...
Scale and vision, and the horizon stretches further. Expansion at Kalomo Abattoir is unlocking access to export markets across the SADC region and beyond.
Crop diversification at Ivamba integrates wheat, maize and other crops, creating a circular system where livestock feed the land and the land feeds livestock.
My name is David Seller. I'm a Zambian and I'm a farmer by profession now. I used to be in marketing when I used to work for the airline. Now my profession has changed completely to a farmer. I first met Hakainde Hichilema many, many, many years ago. I think when he was still practicing in accountancy, whatever, as a high guy, you know, we just say hi to each other and whatever. Then after some time we started interacting and he introduced himself to me and I introduced myself to him as before I'd even got into farming but he was already into ranching. And through my interactions and whatever, at one point I told him look, I'm now going into cropping. From there we would interact each time we meet, how is the crop doing, what are you doing? You know that sort of thing. He said, 'My friend, I think we better be serious now. I need to start.' I said, 'No problem. I'm available for you.' We've been talking about this for a long time. I think he says, you know, I think I have to lead by example as a head of state and I'm very interested so that I show the young people that you can actually do something instead of looking for a job or you know that sort of thing. I said first and foremost you have to get a manager.
My name is Morris Jivundo. I'm the farm manager for Ivamba Ranch. What we do here is we do the cropping and the animal husbandry on the farm. To irrigate wheat you require about 5,000 cubes of water. 5,000 cubes of water per hectare. When you multiply by 60, you are talking of 300 to 400,000 cubes of water per 4 months irrigation period. So if you do that by four, you need about 1.2 million cubes of water to finish a crop of four months. So the water is abstracted from the Kafue River here. It's taken about 1.2 kilometers to the pivots. At the pivots we junction to send them to the four pivots. We've got four pumps. Each pump feeds into a 60 hectare pivot. 60 hectare pivot, 60 hectare pivot. So that's how we irrigate. It's actually a good thing to have a cropping system amid this ranching because what happens the residuals that come from the cropping we are able to make hay to feed into the feedlot for the cattle section. So the introduction of cropping has added an extra benefit to the feedlot. So that is a plus on our part.
