This technical compendium was developed to serve two interrelated purposes: 1.To assist in the development of USAID Zambia’s Feed the Future (FtF) strategy by providing a broad empirical analysis of the current conditions and historical trends shaping Zambia’s agricultural and food sector;...

For several reasons, fertilizer subsidies are again popular policy tools. First, there is broad agreement that fertilizer is a critical yet still-underused input for improving productivity and food security in Africa. Second, politicians have felt greater urgency to increase domestic food...

Forest products play an important role in supporting rural livelihoods and food security in many developing countries. Pimentel et al. (1997) found that the integrity of forests is vital to world food security, mostly because of the dependence of the poor on forest resources. Studies of the role...

Rural poverty rates in Zambia have remained very high, at 80%, over the past decade and a half, whilst urban poverty rates have declined, from 49% in 1991 to 34% in 2006. Redressing this high rural poverty rate remains a government priority in the National Development Programs. However,...

In 2011, Zambia recorded its second consecutive record-breaking maize harvest, and aggregate maize production levels in 2011 were more than double the average level from 2006 to 2008. The expansion in maize production over the period corresponds with the scaling up of the Government of the...

The past two years are a tribute to Zambian farmers; they have responded admirably to government efforts to promote maize production. But ironically, rural poverty remains stubbornly high despite the fact that the government has spent over 2% of the nation’s gross domestic product in...

Smallholder farmers’ access to markets and agricultural support services has been a major concern of Zambian policy makers. As with many governments in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Zambian government’s agricultural policies, particularly for maize, have fundamentally been conceived of as a...

1. Compared to the general price of goods and services as measured by the consumer price index, the prices of retail roller and breakfast maize meal have declined by between 34 and 51% in the major urban markets of Zambia between 1994 and 2010. 2. Inflation-adjusted wholesale maize grain prices...

The study surveyed 127 households from Central, Eastern, Luapula, Northern, and Southern Provinces of Zambia. The primary objective was to explore life-trajectory patterns and key drivers of welfare change. Households were classified based on long term poverty dynamics i.e., how they perceived...

1. According to nationally representative Crop Forecast Survey data, over the past 10 years farmers have harvested between 55 and 90 percent of the area that they planted to maize. 2. In the 2009/10 and 2010/11 crop years, over 80 percent of the maize area planted by small- and medium-scale...