Food relief for vulnerable groups is important in times of deficit. For the remainder of the population, well functioning grain markets can save lives during times of food shortfalls. This note illustrates how predictable Government behavior in the market can improve markets’ ability to meet...

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...

Kenya has been recognized globally as maize success story since the 1970s. Released on the eve of independence, Kenya’s first maize hybrid diffused faster than did hybrids in the U.S Corn Belt during the 1930s-1940s. In recent decades, policy researchers have lamented that earlier gains in...

Women are central to food production and maize is a dominant food staple in Sub-Saharan Africa, but published gender analyses of hybrid seed use in Sub-Saharan Africa are uncommon. Building on previous work, this paper tests the effects of headship definitions on hybrid seed use and explores the...

In many African countries, as well as in other parts of the world where a significant part of the rural population is poor and food insecure, policymakers face what is called the food price dilemma. On the one hand, they need to provide farmers with incentives to increase the quantity of...

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...

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...

The main question which this research originally sought to answer was whether or not inorganic fertilizers are generally profitable used alone on maize, or with pesticides on cotton, for small farmers in Zambia. Rather than give a definitive answer for each Zambian farmer, the authors developed...

This working paper explores the prospects for regional maize trade in helping to stabilize food availability and prices in Zambia. It reviews these general prospects within the maize economy of southern Africa. Given the important regional differences in Zambia’s food economy, it explores...