Serenje

Serenje at a glance

The Mkushi and Serenje Farm Blocks have seen significant investment with medium and large scale farming operations being developed. Long term investors in these areas are well structured and business is flourishing.

The Farming Block is one of the nine (9) areas the Zambian Government has identified and earmarked for commercial agricultural development with main purpose of the commercializing of some agricultural lands being to encourage investment in specific areas of the country and produce raw, semi-processed or fully processed export crops.

Eight dams are proposed to be constructed in the entire Farm Block.  Six of these dams are sited on the Luombwa River (and its tributaries), whilst one is on one of the tributaries of the Kasanka River. These drainage systems run from the Southern axis of the Farm Block to the Northern axis and coincidentally, all these rivers flow into the Kasanka National Park.

Road infrastructure development in the Farming Block will comprise the expansion of existing primary feeder roads and the construction of a network of internal access roads.

The Farm Block has three proposed electricity supply lines which are intended to service both major farming activities in the western region as well as the small-scale agriculture in the east.  The development of this grid system will require the clearance of vegetation to create a way-leave; the latter will measure 20 m in width with a total length of 160 Km. The way leave clearance will likely have similar impacts as those of the road network, given the closely related routing.

The farm block generally experiences moderately cool temperatures with three distinct seasons.  A dry, cold season from May to July with temperatures ranging from 3 to 22o, a warm dry season from August to October with temperatures ranging from 15 to 35oC and a rain season from November to April.  The average rainfall ranges between 750 mm and 1600 mm per annum with the average as 1200 mm, with the rains starting in mid November and ending in mid March with a few showers on either side of the season (October and April).

The soils are Sandstones, quartzite and shale of the Katanga System.  These give rise to heavy and more fertile soils which are generally yellowish red sandy clays.  The hue varies from pale orange (clay sands) to reddish brown (heavy sandy clays) which support Chipya vegetation.  It must be noted that these soils, if not well managed, tend to leach heavily.

The vegetation is largely a combination of Brachystegra and Julbernadia Paniculata Woodlands. The unique feature here is the prominent presence of Uapaca and Protea species, which tend to mask the original vegetation in some places.  The Vegetation growth is largely retarded by the annual cutback for either Chitemene or caterpillar collection.  The results are the appearance of secondary regeneration as the forests rarely reach their climax especially the Brachystegia and Julbernadia species.  Chipya Woodland (B4) is the other type present here, which occurs largely on the dambo edges.  Flood plain and dambo vegetation type occur in the Kafinda GMA.  At the Catchment of streams there is mainly trash group vegetation of Syzygium, Combretum, Terminalia and a bit of Acacia.

The drainage system is supported by the Central Watershed, which runs from the South to the North of the District.  This watershed is the source of the main rivers namely the Luombwa, Munte and the Kasanka.  There are also sub-catchment areas within and outside the farm block which are of significant importance to the farm block, these are:  the Musangashi, Luombwa, Musola.  Mulembo Local Forests, which form sources of perennial streams, which flow into the main drainage system.  Ironically this whole drainage system flows in to the Kasanka National Park and has a very big influence on the ecology of the park.