Smallholder Commercialization Trends as Affected by Land Constraints in Zambia: What are the Policy Implications?

Munguzwe Hichaambwa and Thomas Jayne ()

No 123219, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Abstract: Though Zambia has considerable agricultural potential, the sector’s contribution to growth and poverty reduction has been limited. The sector remains one of the most important employers of labour and remains the main source of livelihood for most rural households in Zambia. Thus key development challenge facing Zambian agriculture over the past two decades has been how it can effectively contribute to poverty reduction and broad-based economic growth. Agricultural commercialisation and surplus production, as revealed by nationally representative farm surveys, in the country has remained concentrated with only about 5% of Zambia’s small- and medium-scale farmers produce half of the marketed surplus. Meanwhile at least half of the smallholder farms sell little or no crops and hence derive virtually no cash income from agriculture.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Crop Production/Industries; Food Security and Poverty; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51
Date: 2012-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Smallholder Commercialization Trends as Affected by Land Constraints in Zambia: What Are the Policy Implications? (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:midcwp:123219

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.123219

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