The Structure and Behavior of Vegetable Markets Serving Lusaka: Main Report.

Rapid growth in urban populations and renewed growth in per capita incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are creating major opportunities for local farmers by driving rapid growth in domestic market demand for food. At the same time, these trends plus rising income are putting enormous stress on the supply chains that these farmers rely on to respond to this increasing demand: demand for marketed food is likely to grow more than 5% per year on the continent, doubling marketed volumes in 12-14 years. Currently, fresh produce marketing systems are the biggest users of public marketing infrastructure, and have been most severely affected by the lack of investment in these systems across much of the continent. This lack of investment has led to an exploding informal marketing sector, rising concerns about congestion and hygiene, and few if any comprehensive programs to actively link farmers to these markets.