Zambia, which has launched a drive to woo foreign investors in agriculture, wants to use its vast land to produce enough food to feed its people and for export, Banda said, and produce crops for bio-fuels -- an alternative to expensive oil.

"For land-rich countries like Zambia and other (southern and east African) states, it may not be necessary to make a choice between producing crops for either food or fuel," Banda said late on Monday at an investment conference.

"The space that we have can accommodate both."

Zambia has already demarcated thousands of hectares of land into farm blocs for sale to foreign and local investors.

Treasury data shows that Zambia, which accounts for nearly half of total water resources in southern Africa, uses only 10 percent of its more than 40 million hectares of arable farmland. Huge tracts of land remain uninhabited by its 12 million people.

"The challenge is how to utilise the space (land) effectively and efficiently," Banda said. "I appeal in this regard for smart ideas on what actions and strategies we should consider to take advantage of the opportunities arising from high fuel and food prices."

High global oil prices are threatening to slow economic growth in most developing countries, Banda said. The World Bank has said such challenges could lead to instability in poor countries that struggle to feed their people.

Government leaders and investors from developing nations in Africa, Asia and the Far East are meeting in Lusaka until Thursday to moot ways of tackling hardship caused by rising oil and food prices, climate change and environmental degradation.

Malaysia's deputy prime minister Mohammed Najib Tun Razak told delegates escalating food and oil prices would make it difficult to cut poverty levels in most poor countries.

"The present turmoil in the world has brought challenges on poverty eradication. The poor and low income groups are the ones bearing the cost of (oil and food) price increases," Razak said.

"These are serious global challenges. We need a smart approach in real partnership (to solve these problems)."