Context Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a strategic crop for food and income generation, but its productivity is challenged by low soil fertility, poor agronomic practices, and variable environmental conditions. Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been proposed as a sustainable intensification strategy, but its effectiveness in cassava-based systems has not been researched in Zambia, particularly when intercropped with legumes. Objectives This study evaluated cassava-legume cropping systems' agronomic, nutritional, and economic performance under CA and conventional practice (CP) in high rainfall conditions. Using an on-farm mother-and-baby trial setup, six cropping systems - combining tillage practices and legume intercrops (common bean and groundnut) were assessed for root yield, legume grain yield, energy and protein contributions, and net economic returns. Methods Two cassava cropping systems, flat planting as CA and planting on annual ridges as CP, were evaluated in a multi-location on-farm trial. Each cropping system was tested with two intercrop legumes and as sole cassava, across four consecutive cropping seasons. A cluster analysis was used to classify the experimental fields into three yield potential clusters. The cropping system treatments in each cluster were assessed using the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF), with metrics representing productive, economic and human dimensions. Results and conclusions Results showed that planting cassava on the flat, especially when intercropped with legumes under conservation agriculture (CA_Bn and CA_Gn), did not compromise cassava yield and significantly enhanced legume grain, protein, and energy yields. These benefits were more pronounced in high and medium yielding environments. Economic analyses revealed higher net benefits and return to inputs in flat-planted intercrops, though labour costs were also higher. Labour productivity varied across clusters, influencing the suitability of systems under local constraints. Significance Overall, planting cassava in flat offers a promising strategy for intensifying cassava production, improving food security, and enhancing profitability for smallholder farmers in Northern Zambia.

In Zambia, clearing land for cultivation is a reported mechanism for making land claims in contexts of uncertain rights and expropriation risk, and leaving land fallow is less common for those with weaker land rights. When only some farmers in a village obtain land title, the land security of untitled landholders, particularly women, can become less secure in contexts where there are fears that chiefs can reallocate land away from untitled smallholders to obtain financial gains from seekers of titled land. On the other hand, if village-level titling signals a general transition towards more transparent regulation and/or more favorable developmental prospects for the area, then local trends in titling may contribute to an increased shared sense of tenure security, even for non-title-holders. Motivated by these hypothesized effects, we examine whether neighborhood titling rates are positively or negatively associated with smallholders leaving land virgin or fallow, after controlling for own-titling status. We show that both own-title status and neighboring titling rates are positively associated with having farmland in virgin and fallow states, i.e., reduced incidence of land clearing, indicating that community titling rates are associated with increased security and expected future returns on uncultivated land. However, these results vary by gender: community titling rates are less strongly associated with decreased land conversion by female household heads (except in the case of leasehold titling) who often have weaker bargaining rights in customary systems. Additionally, we show that, after controlling for one’s own land titling status, neighbors’ titling is associated with greater rental market participation and more longer-term productivity investments. These indirect effects are stronger for leasehold titling as compared with customary land certification, and for titles which have been finalized (compared with titles still being processed). Our analysis indicates that tenure formalization policies may have both direct and indirect effects which differ by type of actor.

Small seed packs for demonstration and testing are widely used to stimulate the uptake of improved crop varieties, yet evidence on their effectiveness remains mixed. This study examines whether small seed packs distributed either for free or at a subsidised price enhance farmers' knowledge and subsequent adoption of improved legumes, drought-tolerant maize, and improved traditional African vegetables in Tanzania and Zambia. Drawing on mobile phone survey data and applying entropy balancing alongside machine-learning methods to address selection bias, we find consistent evidence that seed packs increase both technical knowledge and adoption of these crops. Knowledge gains are strongest for crops with limited prior exposure, while improvements for familiar crops such as drought-tolerant maize likely reflect experiential learning rather than new information. Adoption effects are positive across all crops and robust to alternative estimation strategies. Overall, the results indicate that small seed packs can serve as an effective demand-creation tool, particularly in settings where farmers face information gaps or uncertainty about the performance of improved germplasm.

As resource envelopes to fund research for development activities become tighter, demonstrating value for money is key. This is difficult for various reasons, chief among these being the failure to embed evaluation frameworks in project design. The multiplicity of scaling partners and their interests, and levels of involvement makes it even more complicated to ensure consistent monitoring and evaluation. We demonstrate how to estimate the reach in research for development projects using a population-based computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) survey methodology that is statistically representative at the desired administrative unit level. This approach was applied to the CGIAR Research Initiative - Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi) implemented with several scaling partners across 12 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. The assessment focused on five of the 12 target countries covered in phase one of implementation. The goal of the assessment was to measure the extent of reach and use of agronomic, mechanization, livestock, and nutrition innovations promoted under Ukama Ustawi, and to assess the extent to which the Initiative reached its intended targets. The data comes from 6,445 randomly sampled rural individuals across 27 districts in the five countries. Approximately 1.05 million people were aware of Ukama Ustawi activities, with Kenya and Zambia showing the highest awareness at 16%. Overall, 164,363 people benefited from various innovations promoted by Ukama Ustawi as of September 2024, about 3 years from the beginning of the project. Of these, 135,767 people were direct beneficiaries in areas where specific interventions were implemented. The rest benefited from spillover effects. About 52% of the beneficiaries were female and 56% were youth aged 18-35 years. Innovation use was highest for minimum tillage and post-harvest mechanization in Zimbabwe, followed by agronomic and mechanization options in Malawi. The benefit-reach ratio was highest in Zimbabwe at 61%, followed by Malawi at 31%. This means that Ukama Ustawi activities were most effective at converting reach to beneficiaries in Zimbabwe and Malawi, partly because implementation was layered on past similar interventions. While our results are comparable to more traditional case studies, our survey approach is nearly fourfold cheaper, demonstrating cost-effectiveness and efficiency. We discuss project design and implementation issues necessary to facilitate this kind of evaluation in international development projects.

How, where and what to mechanize in African smallholder agriculture are pertinent development questions. We examine the adoption and impacts of smallholder mechanization hire services using survey data from 642 farmers across Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. For identification, we employ a control-function instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity of mechanization hiring decisions. The primary drivers of the decision to adopt mechanization include distance to service providers, labor demand, area cultivated, and social capital. Our instrumental variable estimates show that hiring mechanization services was associated with increased household income and maize yields across the three countries. The heterogeneous effects using a control-function quantile regression show that the benefits are highest in the lower quantiles. Hiring mechanization services significantly increased income at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, with the largest effects concentrated at the lower end of the income distribution, among poorer households. These findings contrast with concerns that agricultural technologies primarily benefit wealthier farmers. These results demonstrate that smallholder mechanization hire services can serve as an effective pathway out of poverty for smallholder farmers. Our findings suggest that expanding service provider networks and reducing economic and geographical barriers can generate substantial welfare gains. This is especially true for vulnerable farmers who can benefit from better connections between service providers and clients. More broadly, mechanization service provision offers a scalable model for increasing agricultural productivity while promoting inclusive growth in smallholder agriculture.

The 2023/2024 El Niño event was one of the most significant climatic shocks to Zambia's agricultural sector, resulting in a severe mid-season drought across much of the country. This study quantifies crop-specific impacts of the drought on Zambia's agricultural production using district-level crop production and 30-year rainfall data used to construct the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Exploiting spatial variation in the severity of the 2023/2024 drought, we estimate the effect of a one standard deviation rainfall deficit on crop yields and national production. The objective is to quantify how this single extreme event affected crop production in Zambia. Results reveal substantial heterogeneity in crop resilience. Among cereals and tubers, sorghum (9% yield reduction) and millet (12%) are more drought tolerant than maize (30%), rice (26%), and sweet potato (25%). Among pulses and oilseeds, sunflower (12%), cowpea (14%), common bean (15%), and groundnut (16%) show lower yield losses than soybean (21%) and Bambara nut (20%). We find significant heterogeneity in the effect of drought on cereal crop yield across agroecological zones, but less consistent heterogeneity for pulses. The results further indicate that approximately 76% of the observed 64% decline in national crop production value can be directly attributed to El Niño-induced drought conditions. We also show that simply comparing production in a drought year with non-drought years overstates the drought impact for most crops, suggesting that some losses reflect other production and management factors. Our findings support policy interventions focused on strategic crop diversification. Practical implications Climate adaptation policies that support smallholder farmers increasingly rely on quantitative estimates of drought impacts to guide resource allocation, social safety nets, and risk management decisions. Such policies include weather-index based insurance, forecast-based anticipatory action, and agricultural advisory services. In all cases, these interventions depend on understanding the relationship between the measured weather variable and agricultural loss, usually crop yields. This study provides empirical evidence directly applicable to three climate service domains in Zambia and similar contexts across Southern Africa: designing crop-specific drought insurance products, strengthening agricultural extension and advisory services, and improving early warning systems and anticipatory adaptation strategies such as crop diversification or switching. The findings address fundamental challenges in translating climate information into actionable decisions by demonstrating substantial heterogeneity in crop vulnerability and quantifying the proportion of production losses directly attributable to drought conditions.On the insurance side, as an example, Zambia's Farmer Input Support Programme includes a parametric drought insurance component where farmers pay premiums and receive payouts when drought indices exceed pre-defined triggers. However, determining the appropriate relationship between meteorological drought severity and expected agricultural losses remains a fundamental challenge. Our study demonstrates that a one standard deviation rainfall deficit during the 2023/2024 season results in substantially different yield losses across crops: sorghum loses about 9 percent and millet about 12 percent, while maize loses about 30 percent, rice 26 percent, and sweet potatoes 25 percent. For insurance designers, this finding has immediate practical implications. First, using a single crop-neutral drought index for premium calculation and payout triggers will systematically under-compensate farmers cultivating vulnerable crops while potentially over-compensating those growing more resilient crops. Insurance products should either develop crop-specific indices with differentiated triggers and payout rates or use weighted composite indices that reflect actual crop portfolios at the district level. Second, our finding that 76 percent of the observed 64 percent production-value decline is directly attributable to drought conditions shows why payout models should be calibrated using econometric estimates rather than simple comparisons across years. Third, the spatial heterogeneity across agroecological zones indicates that insurance products must be locally calibrated.For advisory and extension services, we argue that climate services should shift from general climate awareness to actionable advisories that identify which crops are more vulnerable or more resilient under specific drought conditions. For early warning systems, our findings enable impact-based forecasting that specifies expected consequences rather than generic alerts: when real-time monitoring or seasonal forecasts indicate rainfall deficits approaching one standard deviation below average, systems can issue differentiated impact forecasts showing relatively high expected yield losses for maize and rice, but lower losses for millet, sorghum, sunflower, cowpeas, common beans, and groundnuts.While this study focuses on Zambia, the methodology and findings are transferable to other drought-vulnerable regions in Southern Africa and beyond, as the analytical approach of using spatial variation in drought severity combined with district-level panel data to estimate crop-specific impacts can be replicated in other countries experiencing similar challenges.

Context or problem: Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe face declining crop productivity due to drought, erratic rainfall, and soil degradation. This undermines food and nutrition security. Objective or research question: This study evaluated whether bundling Conservation Agriculture (CA) with drought-tolerant crops and legume rotations improves productivity, system energy, and stability in low-productivity environments. Methods: On-farm trials were conducted from 2018 to 2025 across four communities in Zimbabwe, comparing CA with conventional tillage practices (CP) in systems involving maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea, and groundnut. Linear mixed models, temporal yield analyses, and genotype-plus-genotype-by-environment interaction (GGE) analyses were used to quantify grain yield responses, stability, and system-level energy. Results: CA increased maize yields by 202-1104 kg ha-1 yr-1 after a three-year transition, with hybrids PAN53 and PGS63 outperforming other varieties. Cowpea out-yielded groundnut and contributed more to system energy (26-27 GJ ha-1 under CA vs. 19-21 GJ ha-1 under CP). Traditional grain crops (sorghum, pearl millet, and finger millet) showed substantial genotypic variation. Maize yields under CA followed a curvilinear trajectory with initial declines in years 1-3, followed by strong gains that exceeded CP by 10-15% by year 7. Yield responses to plant density indicated optima of around 55,000 plants ha-1 for maize and 90,000 plants ha-1 for cowpea. Overall, CA increased system energy yield by 3-10% and improved yield stability. Conclusion: These results from southern and northern Zimbabwe demonstrate that integrating CA with stress-tolerant hybrids and cowpea rotations can enhance productivity, stability, and energy efficiency in smallholder systems. For smallholder farmers, these results suggest that combining CA with drought-tolerant maize hybrids, cowpea rotations, and appropriate plant densities can provide a practical solution to improve productivity and system stability. However, because the analysis is based on site-specific on-farm trials and observed seasonal variability, the results should be interpreted within the environmental conditions represented in the study areas. Implications: Our results provide insights into the potential pathways to improve productivity and system performance in semi-arid smallholder farming systems in Zimbabwe.

Smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa remains constrained by limited access to farm power, high labour requirements, and low machinery ownership. This study evaluated the labour-saving potential, financial viability, client reach, and scaling constraints of a Service Provider (SP)-based mechanization model in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. SPs received a starter package comprising a two-wheel tractor, a trailer, a no-till planter, and a thresher. Machinery was field-assessed, while one SP’s business was monitored over 42 months using records of services, income, costs, clients, repairs, and spare-parts use. The no-till planter reduced crop establishment labour requirements by 58–65% and total crop production labour by 14–24% compared with conventional ox-drawn practices, without significantly affecting maize yield. The thresher achieved upto 100% maize shelling efficiencies and 95% labour saving. The SP served 136 farmers and two groups, generating US$9318 gross revenue. Returns on investment were 379% with a 50% subsidy and 167% without subsidy. Transport generated most revenue, while demand for no-till planting was negligible. Women comprised 50% of clients. The findings show that SP-based mechanization can expand access to farm power without individual machinery ownership. Policies should support affordable machinery, financing, after-sales services, and technologies aligned with local farming practices.

There is consensus on the need to raise agricultural productivity growth in African agriculture. Not on how to do so sustainably. Organic soil health amendments are key. However, there is thin evidence on the state of, and opportunities to upgrade organic fertilizer value chains in Africa. We assessed these value chains in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia to identify challenges, and opportunities for upgrading to better contribute to sustained crop productivity growth. Using a multi-method approach, combining literature review, key informant interviews and focus group discussions, three key findings emerge. First, the organic fertilizer subsector remains underdeveloped across all three countries, accounting for less than 1% of total annual fertilizer consumption. Second, most are produced on-farm and/or in rudimentary production facilities with limited to no quality standards. Third, organic fertilizers cost more per kg of nutrient because they are less nutrient-dense than inorganic ones. For example, nitrogen in Urea costs about $1.26–2.39 per kg compared to $4.86–32.50 for most organic fertilizers. Including organic fertilizers as part of the national input subsidies provides the most rapid pathway to scale its use. Elsewhere, options include targeted short-term subsidies to stimulate demand, and tax incentives to crowd-in investments on the supply side.

The drive to mechanize and modernize African agriculture is in high gear, making the need for empirical evidence to guide mechanization investments critical. This paper assesses the heterogenous and distributional correlates of using mechanization and rural livelihoods in Chegutu and Zvimba districts of Zimbabwe, where a private sector company had the largest sales of different machinery across the country between 2019 and 2021. We used a quantile regression estimator and measured livelihoods using farm and household revenues. Based on survey data from 988 randomly selected households, we found that adoption was associated with rising land/labor ratio, market access and wealth. The use of mechanization was associated with a median annual increase of USD 262 in revenue with a wide range from USD 103 at the 25th percentile to USD 2,900 at the 95th percentile per year. The largest revenue gains were associated with post-harvest and irrigation equipment use, and in the upper percentiles of the revenue distribution. These findings call for (i) wealth agnostic promotional efforts to ensure equitable mechanization benefits, (ii) better targeting of mechanization types to farmer needs, and (iii) concerted efforts to strengthen mechanization service provision models.

In Zimbabwe, as in many other countries, agroecological transitions are often hindered by coordination and execution challenges, rather than by insufficient policy aspirations. Such aspirations, or political intentions, are found in many policy and policy-oriented documents. This study synthesizes 18 government policy documents, academic literature, and an influence-interest mapping exercise to assess the alignment and coordination of agroecology policies in Zimbabwe. Using machine learning-based text analysis, we evaluate thematic congruence across these documents in relation to agroecology principles. The results suggest that the key constraint is not the absence of supportive policies but rather, unclear mechanisms to align and coordinate them effectively. To address these challenges, we propose two approaches: the development of a transcendent agroecology theory of change (in the service of policy coherence) and a "One Government" approach for enhanced inter-sectoral coordination at lower jurisdictions and last-mile implementation. We posit that the analytical framework used here can be applied in real-world policy monitoring, focusing on agroecology or other social objectives.

Smallholder farmers in Zambia face low agricultural productivity, and while tractor mechanization offers a solution, adoption rates remain low. The contextual factors driving this low uptake, including farmers’ preferences for different ownership and financing models, are not well understood. This study uses a mixed-methods approach, including surveys with 208 farmers, 18 focus group discussions (FGDs) and 28 key informant interviews (KIIs) across three districts in Zambia to examine these issues. The analysis shows that the motivations for tractor ownership are centred around both productivity enhancement and income generation through service provision, with farmers valuing tractors’ ability to improve operational timeliness given narrowing planting windows. The results reveal a clear divergence in ownership preferences. Individual ownership is favoured by male farmers and those in more mechanized districts seeking operational autonomy, while group ownership is preferred by female farmers and those in less-mechanized areas for its cost-sharing and risk-management benefits. In terms of incentives for ownership, risk-contingent credit (RCC), particularly when bundled with repair insurance, emerges as the most desirable incentive for encouraging tractor ownership. This highlights the need to de-risk mechanization investments. Key barriers to adoption include high maintenance costs, poor access to spare parts and the financial strains due to social obligations. These results demonstrate that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to promoting mechanization is ineffective. Instead, successful interventions must be flexible, gender-responsive and tailored to the local context. Such an approach would likely increase ownership and improve livelihoods.

Several biotic and abiotic factors constrain progress in African agriculture. We assess the prevalence of and farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for varieties tolerant to fall army worm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) in maize (Zea mays), rust disease in Soybean (Glycine max) and rosette disease in groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea) using experimental auctions. Pest/disease incidences varied across the three countries during the 2022/2023 season (46% - 75% for FAW; 2% - 40% for rust in soybean; 13 - 41% for groundnut rosette disease). Awareness of the existence of tolerant/resistant varieties lags at 7 - 42% for FAW, 4 - 34% for rust tolerant soybean and 3 - 39% for groundnut varieties resistant to rosette. Farmers were willing to pay US $3.3/kg, US $2.5/kg and US $2.3/kg for rust tolerant soybean, rosette tolerant groundnut seed and FAW-tolerant maize seeds, respectively, in Zambia. In Malawi, average WTP was US $1.7/kg , US $1.6/kg and US $1.4/kg for FAW-tolerant maize, rosette tolerant groundnut and rust disease tolerant soybean seeds, respectively. In Tanzania, WTP ranged from US $1.66/kg for rosette tolerant groundnut seed and US $1.50 for rust tolerant soybean seed. We discuss the need and how to close knowledge gaps, address gender disparities, and strengthen seed systems.

Addressing persistent food insecurity requires increased and sustained agricultural productivity in spite of compounding challenges of worsening climate shocks and soil degradation. However, despite numerous initiatives by stakeholders like the Malawian government, along with strong scientific evidence supporting Conservation Agriculture (CA), adoption rates in Malawi remain lower than expected. This study examined social capital as a catalyst for the adoption of CA. It used data from 1512 randomly selected smallholder farmers to investigate how different elements of social capital influenced farmers’ decisions to adopt CA practices. The study findings revealed that social capital elements, namely, group membership and relationships with leadership positively influenced CA adoption. Additionally, factors such as cultivated land size, access to extension services, livestock ownership, and credit availability contributed to the number of CA practices adopted. While the transition to full CA adoption remained limited compared to partial adoption, the study revealed promising trends toward greater uptake. Consequently, these findings highlight the need for agricultural policies that promote farmer organizations, community engagement, and training programs to strengthen social networks and enhance the adoption of CA practices in Malawi.

African smallholder farming systems are complex, diverse and locally adapted, but guidance is lacking on how farmers can make informed choices of the type of organic inputs to suit their farm conditions. In this review we aimed to provide a synthesis of actionable information on ex situ and in situ organic resources and decision support tools to facilitate evidence-based choices by smallholders in cereal production systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Addressing nutrition and climate resilience together requires transdisciplinary participatory action research with clear impact pathways for systems change that starts from the ground up. The concept of ‘crops that nourish’ is proposed here to offer a new mode of pursuing agricultural development. It involves iterative co-creation between farmers and researchers that prioritizes local needs and agency, human health, resilience and sustainability through a focus on opportunity crops.

Improved germplasm is a recognized adaptation strategy to climate change. We assessed the adoption, and impacts of CGIAR maize varieties on livelihoods in Zambia using fixed effects regression and a difference-in-differences framework. Three-waves of nationally representative panel data indicate that 24% of smallholders used CGIAR germplasm on about 225,000 hectares in 2019. Relative to other non-CGIAR maize varieties, the use of CGIAR maize varieties was associated with 26-35% yield increase, and 2-10% reduction in the depth of poverty on average. Thus, while improved varieties can increase crop productivity effectively, they are not substitutes for broad-based poverty reduction strategies.

Adapting smallholder rainfed farming systems to climate change requires adoption of technologies that build resilience to climate shocks. One such technology is conservation agriculture, yet its adoption by smallholders in Southern Africa is not widespread. We use incentivized economic field experiments in Zambia to test, ex-ante, whether providing rainfall forecasts and a time-bound learning subsidy can help increase the adoption of conservation agriculture. We found that providing rainfall forecasts predicting low rainfall significantly increased the probability of adopting conservation agriculture by 8 percentage points, while offering a subsidy increased the chances of adoption by 11 percentage points. Bundling rainfall forecasts and subsidies did not significantly influence adoption, perhaps because these were not complementary. Having experienced normal rainfall in the previous experiment round (cropping season) was associated with 6 percentage points higher odds of adopting conservation agriculture, while past exposure to low rainfall significantly reduced the probability of adoption by 6 percentage points. These results suggest that farmers do not expect two subsequent seasons to be the same given the increase in rainfall variability in the region. Other important drivers of adoption are hosting demonstration plots and education level of the participant. These findings provide evidence that providing rainfall forecasts and time-bound learning subsidies may be effective ways to enhance the adoption of conservation agriculture in Zambia and imply a need to reframe conservation agriculture as means to address low and erratic rainfall. Future research can evaluate the persistence of such effects using randomized controlled trials.