Targeted fertilizer subsidies are growing in popularity in Sub-Saharan Africa and are a pillar of the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s (GRZ’s) agricultural sector strategy. For example, over the 2004 to 2011 fiscal years, the budget allocation to the Fertilizer Support Programme (FSP)...

The successful development and diffusion of improved maize seed in Zambia is a major achievement in African agriculture. Since independence in 1964, and most notably from the 1970s, the commitment of the Government of Zambia (GoZ) to ensuring food security through the involvement of smallholder...

Two decades after initiating sweeping market reforms in their agricultural sectors, governments across Sub-Saharan Africa continue to maintain an active role in staple food markets. At the heart of this highly interventionist approach to food market development is a persistent and widespread...

This paper examines the career trajectories of 66 distinguished African agricultural professionals. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews, the paper explores the answers to two critical questions: How can Africa motivate its youth to consider careers in agriculture and agribusiness? How can...

Rapid urbanization in Zambia means that increasingly heavy demands are being placed on urban food marketing systems. Investment in these systems has been woefully inadequate for many decades, creating supply bottlenecks and health hazards that work against the interests of both farmers and...

The successful development and diffusion of improved maize seed in Zambia during the 1970s–80s was a major achievement of African agriculture but was predicated on a government commitment to parastatal grain and seed marketing, the provision of services to maize growers, and a pan-territorial...

This paper underscores the scope and nature of needed responses to the rapidly changing food systems in Africa. The paper identifies key drivers of this change and estimates their magnitudes. The drivers identified are urbanization, per capita income growth, globalization and climate change....

Groundnuts play an integral role in the livelihoods of the majority of the Zambian population, particularly the rural households. The crop is produced by nearly half of the estimated 1.4 million rural smallholder households, making it the second largest, after maize, in terms of production...