2.

0 AGRICULTURE
Agriculture remains the key priority sector in the growth and poverty reduction agenda of
Zambia. Over 60 percent of the population derives its livelihood from agriculture. Despite
Zambia experiencing strong economic growth in the recent past, agriculture has not
performed well. In order to fully exploit agriculture, Zambia has developed well
articulated agricultural policies and strategies which emphasize objectives such as
attainment of food security, maximizing farmers’ incomes, promoting sustainable
agriculture, and enhancing private sector roles in input and output markets.

2.1 Concrete actions taken and specific progress made in implementation

Zambia has put in place policies that provide public support and investment in
agriculture with a view to creating an enabling environment to attract private sector and
smallholder interest in farm production, processing and trade. The main thrusts of the
National Agricultural Policy (NAP) are liberalization, commercialization, promotion of
public and private partnerships, and provision of effective agricultural services that will
ensure sustainable agricultural growth.

Programmes that Zambia has been implementing to achieve sustainable food production
and enhancing agricultural productivity, farmers’ incomes and as a response to climatic
change include:

1. crop seed multiplication and distribution,

2. conservation farming,
3. Promoting "traditional" food crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, sorghum
and millet.
4. Research into high yielding drought/pests tolerant food crops such as sorghum,
cassava and sweet potatoes;
5. Soil fertility initiatives to combat soil degradation through agro forestry and
organic fertilizer
6. Promotion of small-scale irrigation technologies and post-harvest technologies;
7. Livestock disease control measures such as massive vaccinations, cordon line
construction, livestock movement ban;
8. Provision of extension services to farmers on crops, livestock, and fisheries;
9. Provision of other services such as phyto-sanitary services.
10. As part of the strategy to improve food securities, Zambia is implementing the
Fertilizer Support programme, which was designed to improve access of small-
holder farmers to inputs.
11. Rural seed supply through smallholder seed multiplication
12. The government has established the Out grower programme earmarked to assist
smallholder farmers improve their productivity and farm income. Crops supported
under the programme include Tobacco, Cotton, and Coffee, Pineapples, Cashew
nut, Fresh vegetables and paprika.
13. irrigation development targeting both smallholder and commercial farmers
particularly in the drought prone areas,
14. Livestock development and disease control,
15. Land and infrastructure development,
16. Research and technological development,
17. Development of Fisheries and aquaculture sub sectors
18. Winter cropping in plains is on going as part of the flood recovery programme
19. Commercialization of Agricultural Lands (Farm Blocks Development) aimed at
rationalizing the use of the limited resources to develop the selected parts of up
to 100,000 ha in each of the 9 provinces of the Country. Government is providing
necessary infrastructure such as feeder roads, bridges, storage sheds,
electrification, dams and canals to attract investments in agriculture.
Electrification of Nansanga Farm Block is in progress and surveys are complete.
20. In the farmer selection criteria for the beneficiaries, provision to carter for
affirmative action in consideration of the gender has been made by insuring that
30percent of available small-scale farm plots shall be set-aside for women and
other vulnerable groups.
21. Integrated and diversified farming at community level is one way of achieving
sustainable agriculture. A number of strategies to realize sustainable food
productions at community level are being implemented such as; the utilization of
organic materials. In addition the promotion of suitable cultural practices such as
crop rotation, improved tillage, erosion control, utilization of manure from
livestock enterprises, use of homemade natural pesticides from agro forestry
tree, as well as utilization of crop residues for compost manure and fodders is
being undertaken.
22. Farmer field schools in rural communities have provided an effective approach to
disseminating information on appropriate technologies.
23. The control of agricultural pests is critical to sustainable agricultural development.
With the current challenges Zambia is facing regarding climate change, it is
imperative that environmentally sound agricultural pest control programmes are
implemented. In view of this, Zambia’s past research has concentrated more on
cultural practices such as crop rotation, intercropping, destruction of crop
residues, date of planting and harvesting, deep ploughing and the use of traps
and planting barrier than the other control practices. These cultural practices
have led to the reduction in the amounts of pesticides used.
24. Development of resistant varieties is another area that researchers have used as
a control practice to reduce the use of pesticides. Several varieties have been
and are being screened for resistance against both insects and diseases.
Examples of these include the screening of tomato varieties against red spider
mite a major pest of tomatoes in Zambia during the dry season.
25. In order to improve water management in agriculture, the Government through
the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives is facilitating construction and
rehabilitation of multi-purpose dams, weirs, wells and boreholes; promoting
sustainable river diversion for irrigation; and is developing and promoting
rainwater harvesting technologies.
26. Water saving irrigation technologies such as drip (trickle) irrigation, micro
sprinklers, common sprinklers and centre pivot systems are being promoted. In
recent years, there has been a marked increase in the use of centre pivot
systems especially among large-scale farmers. The emerging farmers tend to
use drag hose, semi fixed and fixed sprinklers systems. Smallholder farmers in
rural areas tend to use treadle pumps or petrol/diesel powered systems
combined with furrow systems for water application.
27. Government recognizes the poor state of infrastructure especially in some of the
potentially productive agricultural areas. Measures that have been undertaken
include rehabilitation of feeder roads, bridges, storage sheds, dams, canals, dip
tanks, on-farm storage to help farmers market their produce and access inputs.
 28. The Government is also developing strategies to educate small-scale farmers on
the importance of constructing on farm storage facilities.
29. Zambia’s local agro-industries have raised concerns with regard to unfair trade
practices with some of the trading partners in the region. However, through
dialogue within the regional bodies such as COMESA, efforts are underway to
level the playing field in trade and investments.
30. It should be noted that the Doha round of negotiations and the ESA-EU-EPA
negotiations relating to the liberalization of agricultural commodities are still yet to
be concluded. However, efforts are being made to liberalize trade in agricultural
commodities within the region.
31. Zambia is encouraging farmers to diversify into production of high value cash
crops such as cotton, tobacco, coffee, herbs and spices, floriculture and
horticulture products. The formation of the Zambia Export Growers Association
(ZEGA) is one positive effort that promotes the production and export of
vegetables, horticulture and floriculture. These products have managed to enter
the European market. Some small-scale farmers around Lusaka have been
certified for Euro GAP and are able to export their vegetables to Europe.
32. The National Early Warning Unit was established in the Ministry of Agriculture
and Cooperatives. The Unit provides early warning information using monthly
food security updates, alerts, Crop and Livestock Monitoring reports as well as
briefings and support to contingency and response planning efforts.
33. Government continues to provide funds for the Food Security Pack Programme
executed through Programme Against Malnutrition (PAM) under the Ministry of
Community Development and Social Services targeting vulnerable but viable
farmers.
34. Nutritional (Food mix) insecurity stems from the lack of access to an adequate
diet due to the unavailability of food variety, ineffective distribution mechanisms
or inadequate utilization of food at household level. Zambia is promoting
diversified production and consumption of nutritious food crops.
35. Zambia is implementing the Private Sector Development Programme with the
aim of improving the investment climate within the country. Within the
programme, is a component on trade expansion that is looking at enhancing the
capacity of the Zambia Bureau of Standards in quality testing to international best
practices, strengthening the capacity of the Ministry to provide SPS services for
export horticultural and livestock products.

2.2 Lessons learnt

T
There has been an increase in food insecurity in rural areas due to factors such as the
collapse of some of the institutions which used to provide services in rural areas leaving
farmers with no guaranteed access to markets and credit. Though the Food Reserve
Agency is present in the crop marketing, the impact is minimal because of inadequate
financial resources.
The private sector has failed to fill some of the vacuum created by the withdrawal of
government services and the collapse of government-supported institutions.

Access to key services such as credit, marketing and information has been problematic
especially to small-scale farmers in outlying areas. Some of the services such as
veterinary services that previously used to be offered to farmers have now to be cost
shared with farmers. Given the high poverty levels and low incomes, most small-scale
farmers have been unable to pay for some of the services.

The earlier focus in the early warning systems was on food, there is realization of the
omissions of markets, trade and impact on livelihood which are being addressed through
data collection and working in collaboration with stakeholders to improve the early
warning system.

During the 1970 - 1980s Zambian agriculture was growing rapidly in comparison to other
economic activities, because then the population was small, vigilant and willing to work
on land. Availability of agricultural inputs was well coordinated, well distributed to bona
fide farmers countrywide. Markets were operative through rural cooperatives, and the
infrastructure was being maintained through a functional Ministry of Works and Supply.
Over the years Zambia’s population has been increasing at the rate of 3.5percent per
annum whereas the agricultural growth has been varying at the estimated rate of 2 to
3percent annually. The lessons learnt are that if prudent measures are put in place the
situation can be reversed. As the national economy grows it is anticipated that more
resources will be unlocked to cater for agricultural and rural development.

2.3 Recent trends and emerging issues

1. Due to trade liberalization, Zambia has exposed local producers to tough
competition from imports.
2. The power outages being experienced in the country have put a lot of uncertainty
in irrigated agriculture and in production of high value agricultural products.
3. The introduction of bio fuel crops such as Jatropha is likely to undermine the food
security situation in Zambia as more farmers may diversify into production of bio
fuel crops at the expense of food crops.
4. Transboundary partnerships on livestock disease control are in place

2.4 Major Constraints

1. Low spending on agriculture-related developments resulted in dilapidated
agricultural support infrastructure and inadequate delivery of extension service.
2. The poor rural infrastructure in many parts of the country is still constraining the
development of agriculture as it increases operational costs and cuts off certain
areas from many agricultural services. Poor infrastructure in rural areas causes
high distribution costs leading to higher prices of food.
3. Natural disasters such as drought and floods due to climate change
4. Low food production among the small-scale farmers.
5. lack of information on appropriate technologies
6. Poor land husbandry practices.
7. High energy prices leading to higher production costs
8. Stringent product standards,
9. HIV/AIDS has emerged as a serious constraint to the development of the
agricultural sector.
10. Inadequate value addition due to lack of fully developed agro-industries resulting
in export of raw materials.
11. Inadequate mechanization of the agricultural sector.
12. Dependence on imported agricultural inputs
13. High dependency on rain-fed agriculture
 14. Non-availability or poor access to inputs
15. High dependency on maize –
16. Underutilization of land resources
17. High incidences of pests and disease for livestock and crops
18. Inadequate agricultural finance and credit,
19. Unfavourable world and regional markets
20. Weak market linkages to local and international markets

2.5 Challenges
1. meeting the millennium development goals of reducing hunger and poverty by 50
percent by 2015
2. The promotion of value addition closer to the production centres to reduce the
cost of wastage e.g. abattoirs, refrigerated trucks for transportation
3. Provision of adequate infrastructure in the rural areas to promote agricultural
development
4. Producing agricultural inputs, (vaccines, fertilizer, equipment) locally
5. Production of bio fuel crops may compromise the production of food and may
lead to hunger in Zambia. A balanced approach is required.
6. There is need to promote the formation of strong farmer based marketing
organizations.
7. Increased investment in the agricultural sector
8. Promoting job creation in off-farm activities
9. Mitigate against impact of HIV and AIDS on agriculture
10. Strong early warning mechanism
11. Promotion of good nutritional practices
12. Promotion of research in crops and livestock

The majority of the poor people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their
livelihood. In this regard, agricultural development has the potential to impact on extreme
poverty and hunger, which affects most rural population. Zambia is focusing on the
development of rural infrastructure where the majority of the poor live. Key growth
strategies being followed support stronger linkages between the resource-base sectors
of agriculture and manufacturing. This will be achieved through upstream linkages to
agro related processing and supporting the expansion of a strong and diversified export
base.

Agriculture and rural development is often interlinked. The development of any

stimulates the other. Efforts have been made to increase agricultural production but the
number of the poor and malnourished people has been increasing over the years. The
reason for this is that the government has not increased investments in agriculture and
rural development.
Despite Zambia being endowed with vast land, fertile soils, plenty of water and a
favourable weather pattern that can support agricultural production and hence stimulate
rural development this potential is never realised. For instance, market reforms have
been made in Zambia to stimulate private sector participation without addressing major
constraints that hinder agricultural and rural development. These constraints include
poor service delivery particularly for small scale farmers, marketing constraints
especially in outlying areas as a result of poor infrastructure such as feeder roads, a void
in agricultural finance and credit, unfavourable world and regional markets and poor
accessibility and administration of land.

Often times, Zambia has tried to develop rural areas by attempting to promote
agriculture at the exclusion of the development of other sectors such as health,
education. However, in rural areas these social amenities such as access to education,
health and extension services are inadequate.

During the 1970 - 1980s Zambian agriculture was growing rapidly in comparison to other
economic activities, because then the population was small, vigilant and willing to work
on land. Availability of agricultural inputs was well coordinated, well distributed to bona
fide farmers countrywide. Markets were operative through rural cooperatives, and the
infrastructure was being maintained through a functional Ministry of Works and Supply.

The lessons to be learnt are that if prudent measures are put in place the situation can
be reversed and such that agricultural growth can be more promising than before. As the
national economy grows it is anticipated that more resources will be unlocked to cater
not only for the development of agriculture but the rural areas as well.