HL Deb 29 November 1978 vol 396 cc1397-8WA
Lord WILSON of RADCLIFFE

asked Her Majesty's Government:

For a report on the experimental scheme of irrigation and agricultural development instituted in Zambia before the mines were nationalised.

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS

I take it that the noble Lord refers to the Kafue Pilot Polder Scheme. Her Majesty's Government have had no involvement in this scheme, which I am told was set up by two mining organisations some time before Zambian Independence in 1964. Nevertheless I understand that the scheme provided a good deal of useful information, much of which has since been used in Zambia. The scheme's main results were negative in that they proved that poldering was too costly a form of irrigation for Zambia.

House adjourned at sixteen minutes past eight o'clock.