page_title: Southern Province, Zambia
section_title: Economy and agriculture
hierarchical_section_title: Southern Province, Zambia / Economy and agriculture
caption_attribution_description: English: cows grazing on the side of the road This is an image with the theme "Africa on the Move or Transport" from: Zambia
context_page_description: Southern Province is one of Zambia's ten provinces, and home to Zambia's premier tourist attraction, Mosi-oa-Tunya, shared with Zimbabwe. The centre of the province, the Southern Plateau, has the largest area of commercial farmland of any Zambian province, and produces most of the maize crop.
  The Zambezi River is the province's southern border, and Lake Kariba, formed by the Kariba Dam, lies along the province's south-eastern edge. The eastern border is the Kariba Gorge and Zambezi, and the north-east border is the Kafue River and its gorge, dividing it from Lusaka Province. The Kafue Flats lie mostly within the province's northern border with Central Province. In the north west lies part of the famous Kafue National Park, the largest in Zambia, and the lake formed by the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam. The south-western border with Western Province runs through the teak forests around Mulobezi which once supported a commercial timber industry and for which the Mulobezi Railway was built.
  The provincial capital is Choma. Until 2011 the provincial capital was Livingstone City. The Batonga are the largest ethnic group in the Province.
context_section_description: Agriculture is the primary economic activity in Southern Province with a mix of small holder and commercial maize farms across the province. Compared to other major agricultural regions, such as Eastern Province, Southern Province has more abundant land and access to water, but receives less rainfall. Southern Province is also home to the "Sweetest Town in Zambia", Mazabuka, where sugarcane farming and sugar processing are a major business. The total area of crops planted during the year 2014 in the province was 360,160.32 hectares which constituted  18.98% of the total area cultivated in Zambia. The net production stood at 688,122 metric tonnes, which formed 16.89% of the total agricultural production in the country. Sorghum was the major crop in the province with 4,695 metric tonnes, constituting 40.62% of the national output.
  Mazabuka grows 90% of sugar grown in Zambia with an estimated 430 tons produced annually. Sugarcane fields in Mazabuka are among the most productive in the world by hectare and low production costs allow production to compete on international markets. Around 60% of sugar is exported to Europe and other markets. However, the export industry is limited due to high transport costs linking processed sugar to export markets. Nationally, the sugar industry in Mazabuka contributes to around 4% of GDP each year.
  The sugar industry in Mazabuka made international news in 2013 when it was discovered that Zambia Sugar, the biggest sugar company in the country, had paid nothing in corporate taxes to Zambia in the previous 5 years.
  Southern Province and Eastern Province are the two primary breadbaskets of Zambia. Southern Province produces more than 600,000 metric tons of maize each year from a combination of commercial, which are unique to Southern Province, and smallholder farms. Despite poor rains in recent years and a strong El Nino weather cycle in 2016, Zambian maize output has been predicted to continue to grow. Growth in Southern Province and across the country has allowed Zambia to remain a net-exporter of maize to food insecure neighboring countries, such as Zimbabwe and Malawi which have been hit more severely by the weather.
caption: Cattle near Chisekesi.
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