Zambia: Impacts of the Ukraine and global crises on poverty and food security

Global food, fuel, and fertilizer prices have risen rapidly in recent months, driven in large part by the fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia. Other factors, such as export bans, have also contributed to rising prices. Palm oil and wheat prices increased by 56 and 100 percent in real terms, respectively, between June 2021 and April 2022, with most of the in-crease occurring since February (Figure 1)

Africa's changing farm size distribution patterns : the rise of medium-scale farms

This study assesses changes over the past decade in the farm size distributions of Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, drawing on two or more waves of nationally representative population-based and/or area-based surveys. Analysis indicates that much of Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership patterns. Among all farms below 100 hectares in size, the share of land on small-scale holdings under five hectares has declined except in Kenya. Medium-scale farms (defined here as farm holdings between 5 and 100 hectares) account for a rising share of total farmland, especially in the 10–100 hectare range where the number of these farms is growing especially rapidly. Medium-scale farms control roughly 20% of total farmland in Kenya, 32% in Ghana, 39% in Tanzania, and over 50% in Zambia. The numbers of such farms are also growing very rapidly, except in Kenya. We also conducted detailed life history surveys of medium-scale farmers in each of these four countries and found that the rapid rise of medium-scale holdings in most cases reflects increased interest in land by urban-based professionals or influential rural people. About half of these farmers obtained their land later in life, financed by nonfarm income. The rise of medium-scale farms is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. Many such farms are a source of dynamism, technical change, and commercialization of African agriculture. However, medium-scale land acquisitions may exacerbate land scarcity in rural areas and constrain the rate of growth in the number of small-scale farm holdings. Medium-scale farmers tend to dominate farm lobby groups and influence agricultural policies and public expenditures to agriculture in their favor. Nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from six countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia) show that urban households own 5–35% of total agricultural land and that this share is rising in all countries where DHS surveys were repeated. This suggests a new and hitherto unrecognized channel by which medium-scale farmers may be altering the strength and location of agricultural growth and employment multipliers between rural and urban areas. Given current trends, medium-scale farms are likely to soon become the dominant scale of farming in many African countries.This study was presented at the 29th Triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists, August 13, 2015, Milan, Italy.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Africa (GISAIA) grant at Michigan State University, and from the Food Security Policy Innovation Lab, funded by USAID's Bureau for Food Security.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1574-08622018-11-30Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

Can smallholder farmers grow? Perspectives from the rise of indigenous small-scale farmers in Ghana

This paper examines the process of growth and the drivers of transition using a quantitative survey of Ghanaian medium- and large-scale farmers. The paper departs from the competing visions on whether to promote small-scale or large-scale farms in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) primarily by arguing that an important transition of onetime small-scale farmers is taking place in Ghanaian agriculture and potentially in other SSA countries. This transition is largely unresearched, although it is a critical feature of agricultural transformation with implications for agricultural development strategies in the SSA sub-region. Acknowledgement : We would like to thank the United States Agency for International Development for providing financial support for this study through the IFPRI s Ghana Strategy Support Program. We thank Shashidhara Kolavalli and Xinshen Diao for their insightful comments on this research. This research also benefited from comments by Xiaobo Zhang, Guush Berhane Tesfay and numerous other IFPRI staff during the IFPRI s Retreat for IFPRI Staff Everywhere (RISE). We are solely responsible for any errors and omissions

Quantitative Livelihood Profile Analysis of Rural Households in Zambia

The asset base, income and livelihood strategies of rural households in Zambia differ widely. For this reason, a one-size-fits-all strategy will not be effective. Therefore, there is need for empirical evidence of how different policy instruments in agriculture and social protection and combinations of these can be targeted to different population groups. This could also help orient public expenditure into more impactful and cost effective interventions in agriculture and social protection. Using Principal component analysis and Cluster analysis, Zambia s 1.4 million smallholder farming households fall into five broad livelihood groups. While crop and non-crop agriculture plays a dominant role in the livelihoods of most rural households, off-farm activities are also important. Poor rural households need both income and productive support, which can be provided through social protection and smallholder agricultural development programmes. Agricultural development programmes need to be adjusted to different crop and non-crop agricultural activities. Support also needs to be provided to off-farm income-generating activities. For the wealthiest clusters, policy should consider private sector led down and upstream agricultural supply and/or value chain inclusion and development. Acknowledgement : We acknowledge the financial support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). We particularly appreciate the input in the design and analysis of the study, including review comments by Moses Chibole, Silvio Daidone, Alejandro Grinspun and Maria Angelita Ruvalcaba of FAO and peer reviewing by Fabio Veras. Any views expressed or errors are solely the responsibility of the authors

Africa’s Changing Farm Structure and Employment Challenge

Even under optimistic assumptions about the rate of urbanization and growth of non-farm employment, agriculture will still be the main source of livelihood for the majority of Africans for at least the next several decades (Losch 2012). Non-farm wage jobs in SubSaharan Africa will be able to absorb between 40 to 65 percent of the additional 122 million workers estimated to enter the labor force before 2020 (Fine et al. 2012). This means that farming will be called upon to provide gainful employment for at least a third of young Africans entering the labor force till at least 2025. However, for agriculture to provide viable employment, young people will require access to land