Smallholder Household Maize Production and Marketing Behavior in Zambia and Its Implications for Policy.

The ability of agricultural policy makers to promote national development objectives requires an accurate and reasonably current picture of what crops farmers grow, what they eat, the importance of various crops in their incomes, and how they spend their money. In Zambia’s case, there is reasonably accurate information on production levels and trends in a specific set of crops grown by smallholder farmers, but very little knowledge of how important these specific crops are in smallholders’ total crop incomes, the importance of crop production in total smallholder incomes (which include livestock and non-farm activities), and how changes in crop prices affect smallholders’ welfare. This paper presents a comprehensive picture of crop production and marketing patterns in Zambia’s small- and medium-scale farm sector, examines how these patterns vary regionally, and examines differences between poor and non-poor strata of the rural farm sector. The data presented comes from the 1999/00 and 2002/03 production years, corresponding to the 2000/01 and 2003/04 marketing years. Because so much policy attention in Zambia is focused on maize, the study provides a particular emphasis on small farmers’ maize production and marketing behavior, and discusses their implications for policy.