Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zambia, your Royal Highnesses, cabinet ministers present, the board chair for Sitco and your board members. Just allow me to write on the protocols that have been given this far and research that the combination of these three words, Your Excellency, resulted in SC561. Grateful to you, Chair. Excellency, we have just toured and seen amazing things that Sitco is doing. And for me, Your Excellency, what we toured was a tech company, a tech company called Seed Co. Sitco is a key driver of technology innovation and research, creating the capabilities for improved productivity, improved efficiency, and ensuring that we deliver seeds, Your Excellency, that are climate resilient, but that these are driven entirely by technology. So when my minister from Chipata, Minister of Agriculture, said he was not available, I said I'll speak for you, Your Excellency, because it's a tech company called Sitco. As your lieutenants have been seized with one key responsibility: how do we use technology as a key enabler to drive output. And the first building block, Your Excellency, is for us to create the necessary connectivity of our farmer, connecting our farmers wherever they are across Zambia. This connectivity, Your Excellency, is to enable them to be able to receive the services that are provided by Sitco, by Ministry of Agriculture, and many more. And because of this, Your Excellency, you taught us to find money to ensure that the connectivity extends in particular to where the majority of our farmers are, which is in the rural area. And dear farmers, courtesy of His Excellency, the World Bank has given Zambia a grant of $100 million, out of which, Your Excellency, we shall deliver 300 towers in the rural part of Zambia again to connect our farmers to Sitco. Your Excellency, the next platform that we looked at as your servants are the digital platforms. And these digital platforms, dear farmers, have been responsible to eliminate waste, duplication, including farmers who were fed double under the FISP program because of digital platforms. His Excellency will tell you that we have been able to eliminate over 200,000 fake farmers in this country, and that is the importance of the digital platforms that His Excellency has been able to bring. But His Excellency has also said let's go 100% e-voucher, and in doing that, dear farmers, we have also created over 5,000 people that are in the agro-dealer ecosystem that are providing the support to our farmers. And our last building block, Your Excellency, is the use of enabling technology, in particular to detect diseases early and to ensure that we deliver the absolute productivity that is required. So, Your Excellency, my final thoughts is that agriculture has transformed tremendously under your leadership. The reforms we have taken in the agriculture space has given this country the confidence that now we can have a vision to deliver 10 million tons of maize by 2031, 1 million tons of soya by 2031, 1 million tons of wheat by 2031. And the summary of that is that, Your Excellency, in agriculture we are moving, we are moving forward digitally in agriculture. And dear farmers, let us continue to move forward digitally in agriculture. It is now my singular honor and privilege to call upon you, Your Excellency, to deliver your keynote speech. Your Excellency, sir, you may take your seats, please. Thank you very much.
