The big lie – former Zimbabwean white farmers are not driving maize production in Zambia

How is Zambia doing it?

In 2002, the Zambian government introduced a Fertilizer Support Program (FSP), under which smallholder farmers got fertilizer subsidies. In the 2009/10 season, FSP was succeeded by the Farmer Input Support Program (FISP), whose purpose was to raise maize production through the provision of fertilizer and maize seed.

It is this subsidy programme that has driven Zambia’s maize success.

FISP grew fertilizer distribution from 48 000 metric tons in 2002/03 to nearly 183 000 MT in the 2012/2013 farming season.

So large was the programme that, at its peak, Zambia was spending 90 percent of its agriculture budget on FISP. This is according to a report by Chance Kabaghe, director of Zambia’s Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute, and Thom Jayne, professor of international development in the department of agricultural economics at Michigan State University.

The program started with 120,000 beneficiaries. This number has grown to one million farmers, according to a May 14, 2016, speech by Zambian president Edgar Lungu.

The programme has its critics. Kabaghe and Jayne say the 90 percent allocation of agriculture spending to subsidies starves other key areas, such as crop research, agronomic management extension programmes including minimum soil tilling, irrigation and road infrastructure

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