Other Agriculture Study

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  • Publication
    The Role of Strategic Grain Reserves in Enhancing Food Security in Zambia and Zimbabwe
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-21) World Bank
    Zambia and Zimbabwe have experienced food security emergencies of varying severity, mainly caused by drought and floods in some areas. Like several countries in Africa and elsewhere, the two countries have developed and used Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) to cope with food emergencies and other functions to ensure the availability of food. Both countries have years of experience with SGR as a key component of their respective food security policies. At the center of this strategy is the availability and sufficient supply of white maize, as the single most important strategic crop. The study is organized into four parts as follows: Part 1 presents the introduction laying out the background, objectives, methodology and structure of the report; Parts 2 and 3 present separate country analysis for Zambia and Zimbabwe covering the overview of the food security situation, strategic grain reserve operations and management in relation to food emergencies, and recommendations to enhance the strategic grain management; and Part 4 presents the conclusion.
  • Publication
    Zambia's Farmer Input Support Program and Recommendations for Re-designing the Program
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-21) World Bank
    This note provides recommendations for redesigning Zambia’s Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) in the context of international experience with other similar programs, especially those in Africa. The objective of this note is to provide recommendations that can help in improving the current programs providing subsidized inputs to farmers, through enhancing the efficiency of the program, targeting the right beneficiaries, value perceived by beneficiary farmers, and probably bringing in savings. The note is a key deliverable under the Advisory Services work carried out by the Bank on strategies for food security in Zambia and Zimbabwe. This note has three sections following the summary: (i) a brief review of the evidence generated on input subsidy programs; (ii) specific recommendations for Zambia’s Farmers Input Support Program, and (iii) recommendations on complementary investments.
  • Publication
    Zambia Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan: Analyses to Support the Climate-Smart Development of Zambia’s Agriculture Sector
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03) World Bank
    Zambia’s agricultural sector represents the backbone of its rural economy and holds great potential for the entire country. Zambia’s agriculture sector faces challenges and is likely to grow more vulnerable as a result of climate change and risk. At the same time, land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), and agriculture sector account for approximately 93 percent of the country’s carbon footprint. The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GoZ) is integrating climate change concerns into its agriculture policy agenda. Under its Zambia climate-smart agriculture (CSA) strategy framework, the GoZ is promoting the rollout of CSA practices that will sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The CSA investment plan (CSAIP) aims to identify and fill knowledge gaps about CSA’s local- and national-level benefits, specifically under climate change, inform policy development, and prioritize investment opportunities. The World Bank collaborated with the GoZ to develop a CSAIP intended to support the operationalization of the country’s climate commitments toward development of a productive, resilient, and low-emission agriculture sector. The CSAIP development began with a participatory process that identified the agriculture sector’s policy goals. This report takes the next step by assessing the impacts of a suite of CSA practices on achieving the sector goals and on household welfare. The report concludes with recommendations and proposals for future CSA investments.
  • Publication
    Productive Diversification of African Agriculture and Its Effects on Resilience and Nutrition
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-25) World Bank
    The agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the backbone of national economies, sustaining rural and urban livelihoods alike, and providing food and income for the majority of households. Recent agriculture growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has been solid and has supported improvements in nutrition outcomes and poverty rates.Despite some relative gains, food insecurity and malnutrition in absolute terms continue to be major public health challenges in most African countries south of the Sahara, and most recent data are cause for concern. Many countries are still highly reliant on the production of one crop for national food security, which largely determines the total caloric intake of the rural population. Farmers in Sub-Saharan African are vulnerable to market risks and weather-related risks and shocks. Decisions on whether to diversify or to specialize production impact resilience, and thus their capacity to cope with and adapt to these risks. Market- and climate-related risks to smallholders in SSA are compounded by predictions that both the suitability of crop area for staples such as maize, and crop nutrient content could be substantially lowered with rising average temperatures. This report highlights that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in fostering diversification and provides a selection of policies available to governments that can promote or constrain diversification.
  • Publication
    Increasing Agricultural Resilience through Better Risk Management in Zambia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-04-01) Braimoh, Ademola; Mwanakasale, Alex; Chapoto, Antony; Rubaiza, Rhoda; Chisanga, Brian; Mubanga, Ngao; Samboko, Paul; Giertz, Asa; Obuya, Grace
    A proper understanding of the risks faced by the agricultural sector and effective strategies to manage those risks is vital to creating a diversified and resilient economy for sustained growth and economic transformation. Increasing Agricultural Resilience through Better Risk Management in Zambia provides a rigorous analysis of the production, marketing, and enabling environment risks faced by Zambia’s agricultural sector and prioritizes solutions to manage the risks. In terms of the severity and frequency of adverse impacts, the analysis shows that droughts, floods, price volatilities, and trade restrictions are the principal risks affecting agriculture in the country. Exposure to the consequences of these and other risks can be effectively limited through risk management systems tailored to the country’s context. Three areas of risk management are found to warrant priority, with significant potential for synergizing actions undertaken across them: Strengthen early warning system to detect threats to food security; Develop climate-smart agriculture and increase resilience to climate-related shocks through diversification; and Develop the Zambian Commodity Exchange (ZAMACE) and build a shock-responsive safety net.
  • Publication
    Zambia Jobs in Value Chains: Opportunities in Agribusiness
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017) Krishnan, Sudha Bala; Peterburs, Teresa
    This study analyzes from a jobs perspective two high potential value chains (VCs) in Zambia’s agribusiness sector poultry and aquaculture. With more than 50 percent of workers and over 80 percent of poor Zambians recording themselves in agriculture in the 2010 population census, raising agricultural productivity is a determinant to reduce poverty. Yet small-scale farmers (SSFs) and modern commercial operations in large farms exist in parallel, as SSFs typically use backward production systems with scant capitalization. Zambia’s challenge is to overcome the persistent disconnect between low productivity smallholder agriculture and high productivity modern agribusiness firms. Developing market linkages will enable the agribusiness sector to meet the growing urban demand for food products, while connecting more people to jobs.
  • Publication
    Linking Women with Agribusiness in Zambia: Corporate Social Responsibility, Creating Shared Value, and Human Rights Approaches
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06) White, Pamela; Finnegan, Gerry; Pehu, Eija; Poutiainen, Pirkko; Vyzaki, Marialena
    Three of sub-Saharan Africa’s central economic realities motivate this study. First, agriculture is the most important sector in most African economies, on average accounting for nearly one-fourth of GDP. Second, the private sector is increasingly active in transforming African agriculture and economies. By 2030, agriculture and agribusiness are anticipated to become a US$ 1 trillion industry in Africa, delivering more jobs, income, and economic growth. Third, women make up half of sub- Saharan Africa’s agricultural labor force on average (and two-thirds or more in some countries). Yet women’s strong presence in agriculture belies the comparatively weak commercial benefits they derive from it. Throughout Africa, women struggle to enter and operate highly productive and profitable agricultural enterprises. Their plots of land tend to be smaller, their crops less remunerative, and their access to land, inputs, and finance far more restricted and precarious than men’s. Africa boasts the highest share of ‘entrepreneurs,’ but these women are disproportionately concentrated in the ranks of the self-employed rather than among the employers. Women’s productivity is lower than men’s, not because they are women, but because informal, smaller firms are inherently less productive, and more women operate these types of enterprises. The real challenge in expanding opportunities and empowering women is not to help more women to become small-scale, informal entrepreneurs but to enable them to shift to activities capable of delivering higher returns and employing others.
  • Publication
    Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-03-11) World Bank
    This report highlights the great potential of the agribusiness sector in Africa by drawing on experience in Africa as well as other regions. The evidence demonstrates that good policies, a conducive business environment, and strategic support from governments can help agribusiness reach its potential. Africa is now at a crossroads, from which it can take concrete steps to realize its potential or continue to lose competitiveness, missing a major opportunity for increased growth, employment, and food security. The report pursues several lines of analysis. First, it synthesizes the large body of work on agriculture and agribusiness in Africa. Second, it builds on a diagnosis of specific value chains. As part of this effort, the value chain for Africa's largest and fastest-growing food import, rice, is benchmarked in Senegal and Ghana against Thailand's rice value chain. Third, 170 agribusiness investments by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) in Africa and Southeast Asia are analyzed to gain perspective on the elements of success and failure. Fourth, the report synthesizes perspectives from the private sector through interviews with 23 leading agribusiness investors and a number of other key informants. In conclusion, the report offers practical policy advice based on the experience of countries from within and outside Africa. The huge diversity of Africa's agro-ecological, market, and business environments, however, necessarily means that each country (and indeed regions within countries) will need to adapt the broad guidance provided here to the local context. Annex 1, concerning the rice value chain, was authored by John Orchard, Tim Chancellor, Roy Denton, Amadou Abdoulaye Fall, and Peter Jaeger. Annex 2, containing interviews with 23 leading agribusiness players in Africa, was authored by Peter White.
  • Publication
    Agribusiness Indicators: Zambia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12) World Bank
    Agriculture and agribusiness play an important role in the Zambian economy, contributing around 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years and about 12 percent of national export earnings. Agriculture employs nearly 70 percent of the labor force and remains the main source of income and employment for most of the people living in rural areas. The objective of the Zambia agribusiness indicators (ABI) country report is to examine factors that have affected agricultural productivity, market access, and the policy environment for agriculture in Zambia. This report presents findings of a data collection exercise carried out to compile a set of pilot ABI for Zambia. The pilot indicators presented are based on a review of the literature, government statistical bulletins, and primary interviews in the seed, fertilizer, mechanization, agricultural finance, and transport subsectors. The resulting indicators are presented in matrix form, together with notes indicating the specific data source (or sources) used for each indicator. A set of questionnaires was developed for this part of the exercise based on guidelines. Perception indicators on the quality of road infrastructure and other transport sector issues were added to supplement the checklist guidelines. The anticipated impact of the presentation of country performances will be to raise the competitiveness of African agriculture by bringing into sharper focus measures of how individual countries are transitioning towards a more commercial agriculture. This report consists of following seven chapters: chapter one gives introduction; chapter two presents access to and use of improved seed; chapter three focuses on fertilizer access and availability; chapter four focuses on access to farm machinery and tractor hire services; chapter five presents access to agricultural and agri-enterprise finance; chapter six gives cost and efficiency of transport in Zambia; and chapter seven presents policy and enabling environment for agribusiness development.
  • Publication
    Africa Can Help Feed Africa: Removing Barriers to Regional Trade in Food Staples
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-10) World Bank
    Africa's growing demand for food has been met increasingly by imports from the global market. This, coupled with rising global food prices, brings ever-mounting food import bills. In addition, population growth and changing demand patterns will double demands over the next 10 years. Two key issues must be addressed: (a) establishing a consistent and stable policy environment for regional trade in fertilizers; and (b) investing in institutions that reduce the transaction costs of coordination failures. Many countries have enacted new fertilizer laws in recent years, but few have provided the resources to define and enforce regulations through standards and testing capacity. This report shows that reducing regulatory burdens on fertilizers and the consequent increase in use of fertilizers will have substantial impacts on returns to farmers, with consequent impacts on poverty. The report highlights the range of barriers to food trade in Africa along the entire value chain. The issues pertain to many ministries and agencies within government: trade, agricultural, health and safety, transport, and finance. This in turn requires a "whole of government' approach to freeing up food trade, which will require strong and effective leadership to articulate the rationale and sustain the momentum for reform. Leaders must also address the hard choices that will arise in dealing with the political economy constraints that have until now blocked the capacity of Africa to exploit its enormous potential to feed Africans.