Although the country is expected to attain a below average maize production of 2,394,907 MT due to erratic rainfall mainly in the Southern half of the country and to a less extent armyworm infestation, the total supply will be more than adequate to meet the annual requirement with a surplus of 341,313 MT. The 2017-18 […]
Strategic food reserves are an important component of national food security. Currently Zambia, through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), holds all its food reserves as physical stocks with huge cost implications on the treasury. By embracing innovative grain trading systems such as commodity exchanges, FRA can reduce the cost of managing food reserves as well […]
Comparing self-reported to GPS measurements, we find farmers frequently mis-state the size of their fields in survey data Although errors are often made in either direction on all field sizes, we find evidence that, on average, smaller fields tend to overstate and larger fields tend to understate actual field size. Input application rates are more […]
Understanding the main drivers of having successful youth in agri-business and the challenges they face is key in addressing youth unemployment in Zambia. The key aspects that facilitate youth to venture into an agri-business enterprise include, social/economic factors such as education/training, income, social supports, and personal realization that in entrepreneurship one can still achieve his […]
Despite Government policy aimed at improving food and nutrition security, Zambia’s food and agricultural system remains largely undiversified and is neither providing food security nor adequate nutrition for all. Households understand the need for agricultural production including: income generation; improving soil fertility; controlling pests; diversifying consumption; providing feed for livestock; and being able to grow […]
Private sector participation increased in the 2018/19 marketing season compared to the previous one. Large and small-scale traders who went into the crop market earlier than the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), were mostly those that engage in other businesses such as retailing and transporta- tion in addition to well established large traders and millers. For […]
Current maize pricing policy has a huge impact on the National Treasury, downstream industries as well as the farmer and consumer welfare. The cost of the production model used by the GRZ through FRA is not the most cost efficient option for stimulating sustainable growth in maize production in Zambia. The method disregards all other […]
Key Findings Comparing self-reported to GPS measurements, we find farmers frequently mis-state the size of their fields in survey data Although errors are often made in either direction on all field sizes, we find evidence that, on average, smaller fields tend to overstate and larger fields tend to understate actual field size. Input application rates […]
167,000 – 300,000 hectares of forest are lost every year in Zambia, and different polices are in place or have been proposed to contain forest loss. But, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of these policies. We conducted framed field experiments with actual forest users to test ex-ante the impacts of community forest management, […]
Understanding the main drivers of having successful youth in agri-business and the challenges they face is key in addressing youth unemployment in Zambia. The key aspects that facilitate youth to venture into an agri-business enterprise include, social/economic factors such as education/training, income, social supports, and personal realization that in entrepreneurship one can still achieve his […]