The Zambia National Service -ZNS- will this year set up three Cannabis plantations which will create over three thousand jobs for young people.
ZNS has so far acquired 60 hectares of land in Kabompo District of North Western Province to set up a Cannabis plantation for medicinal purposes.
ZNS Commandant Maliti Solochi says the service plans on setting up plantations in Mwense District of Luapula Province and Namwala District in Southern Province.
Lieutenant General Solochi says each plantation is expected to create one thousand jobs for locals in each of the three districts.
He says ZNS will also be undertaking aquaculture projects alongside the Cannabis plantations in all the three units.
Speaking when he paid a courtesy call on Kabompo Member of Parliament Ambros Lufuma in Kabompo, General Solochi revealed that works on the Kabompo Cannabis plantation are expected to start in the next three weeks.
And Mr. Lufuma, who is also Defence Minister, said young people in the district are ready to start working in the Cannabis plantation.
He said the district is ready to provide ZNS with the required human resource.
Mr. Lufuma has however called on ZNS to ensure security around the Cannabis plantation is heightened to avoid people stealing from the plantation.
Meanwhile Kabompo District Commissioner Herbert Chinyanga has called on the ZNS to utilise the Kabompo River and venture into aquaculture.-ZBNC