| | |
| | |
|
Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 85 Poverty Reducing Potential of Smallholder Agriculture in Zambia: Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate poverty-reducing potential of smallholder agriculture in Zambia, considering suggested public actions expected to stimulate broad-based growth in the rural economy. This paper was prepared as part of the Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) work carried out to inform the Zambia Country Economic Memorandum (CEM). Following PSIA guidelines, it combines quantitative and qualitative analyses from a variety of sources. Several analytical techniques are used to examine opportunities and constraints facing typical Zambian smallholders. These include enterprise budgets, a smallholder household model, and reviews of recent studies. Using a one-period linear programming model of agricultural production activities by smallholder households, the authors examine potential impacts of land tenure reforms, changes in fertilizer policy, infrastructure investments, and HIV/AIDS on land and labor use and income-generation. Based on the results of the smallholder model and other analysis, the authors are not very optimistic about the potential for agriculture-led poverty reduction, especially in the short term. A major transformation is required for smallholders’ agricultural potential to become reality. Large-scale investments are needed in research and extension, market and transport infrastructure, capacity-building for individual farmers and groups of farmers, and more. These investments require time to reach fruition. Policies to stimulate non-agricultural economic activities in rural areas should also be explored. Although high seasonal labor demands create bottlenecks at key times, there is an opportunity to spread labor more evenly through the year as a means to increase household incomes. In all cases, a more comprehensive and holistic approach to rural development is needed, not just an agricultural or commodity-specific strategy .Full
text of paper (853KB, In Adobe Acrobat format. Requires
Acrobat PDF viewer.) |
