Daisy Kambandu, the country program manager for the Chinese-run Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (ATDC) in Zambia, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss China’s unconventional approach to agricultural assistance. In contrast to most traditional aid programs, ATDCs like the one near Lusaka have a very strong corporate and commercial focus.
And with Zambia’s food security now jeopardized by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, massive flooding in some regions and severe drought in other areas, Daisy explains that agricultural innovation is critically important.
Daisy is the country program manager for the Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center in Lusaka. She’s worked for various private sector development projects integrating small and medium-size companies’ needs in enterprise development with a specific focus on human resource planning, organizational communication, and strategic planning. This work with various micro, small, and medium food processing companies has been to understand and improve their operations to improve internal efficiencies in the various value chains they operate in. As Commercialization Manager, the responsibilities have broadened to overseeing the department which includes staff from the partner organization Oversees Strategic Consulting
