If we told you there’s a “new” product on the Zambian market that could help you maximise the fertiliser you’re using, leading to better production, even with only two bags of fertiliser, AND increase your profit margins by more than 40%, you’d probably laugh yourself silly, right? Well, you may want to sit down while you read this article.

The US product, PlantCatalyst®, is now available in stores all across Zambia, and if you are not using it, you’re missing out!

Invented in 1965 by the American chemist, Dr John W Willard, and sold in the United States since 1973, PlantCatalyst® is a water additive that helps plants to better absorb and utilise nutrients, develop stronger root systems and build greater resistance to stressful events such as drought.

This means that farmers can get the most out of fertiliser and still see increases in their yield by double digit percentages!

At a stable and low cost of K400 per litre, using PlantCatalyst® will help Zambian farmers to increase their yields, particularly during the recent dramatic fertiliser shortages and price increases, without sacrificing profits or yields.

PlantCatalyst® was first introduced in Zambia in 2016, through a partnership with international development group, iDE, who helps smallholder farmers in the Lusaka, Copperbelt and Southern provinces to find new ways of expanding yields and profits.

When they heard how PlantCatalyst® can help farmers in so many ways, iDE was eager to test the product, and they set up comparison plots throughout the three regions to conduct research on how the product works and how it can be incorporated into Zambian farming practices.

In that same year, the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) also began to conduct research on the effect of PlantCatalyst® on maize, soya beans, groundnuts and cotton. ZARI also focused their research on how using PlantCatalyst® can affect farmers’ yields and profits.

By the second year, World Vision and Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) had both joined the PlantCatalyst® bandwagon with field trials to demonstrate PlantCatalyst® to their members.

The results of these research projects continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of PlantCatalyst® and conclusively prove using it can help Zambian farmers in several different ways. For example, those farmers accessing inputs through the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) typically do not get enough fertilisers. These farmers can adequately address their needs by adding PlantCatalyst® to their inputs, which would then allow them to significantly increase their yields and profits.

For those farmers buying larger quantities of fertiliser, such as commercial farmers, using PlantCatalyst® would allow them to reduce fertiliser costs while simultaneously increasing yields and profits. ZARI found that profit increases could be as much as 40% per hectare for some crops!

The photos below show crops that are still growing, which show significantly improved vegetative growth. Each of the compared crops was planted on the same day and on the same field.

PlantCatalyst® is now available! You can get supplies of PlantCatalyst® from AgriFocus Ltd. Their headquarters is in Lusaka along Buyantashi Road in the Heavy Industrial area.

The other main distribution agents are:

Pamoza Agro in Lusaka town along Chachacha Road north end, +260-968-624-712 Pamoza Agro in Mpongwe, +260-974-881-674, AgMart in Choma, +260-977-898-587 /+260-969-592-925 / +260-964-637-637, AgMart in Mkushi, +260-976-264-121 / +260-968-265-774, AgMart in Mumbwa, +260-962-614-074 / +260-977-855-867, Technical Service Services in Livingstone, +260-976-553-035 /+260-975-270-952, Technical Service Services in Kitwe, +260-078-388-492 /260-975-271-065, Technical Service Services in Samfya, +260-975-271-346, and other local based business agents that are being created throughout the country.