Crop Diversification Among Smallholder Farmers in Kapiri-Mposhi District
Crop diversification among smallholder farmers in Kapiri-Mposhi District Bessy Kabongola Eunice N. S. Imasiku 1. INTRODUCTION A broad-based economic growth has been the main objective throughout Zambia’s post- independence years. To achieve this, five policy goals were set out just after independence: Economic diversification, employment creation, removal of regional and sectoral inequalities, sustainable internal and external balance and provision of social facilities. The financial base for achieving these goals was mineral assets and copper in particular (Chiwele, 1999). The major decline in copper prices in 1974 marked the beginning of Zambia’s protracted economic decay. In the bid to offset the damage caused by the declining mining sector, the government directed its efforts to the development of agriculture sector (Saasa, 1996). Agricultural growth was to play an important role, especially with respect to the first two goals highlighted above. The three decades of experimenting with economic and agricultural policies, have failed to stimulate the expected outcome as many resources of the agricultural sector are not fully utilised. The reason for this idling of land as argued by Chiwele (1999) is not a shortage in the amount of financial resources spent by the government in the agriculture sector, but rather the allocation of the financial resources within the sector which also to a large extent is influenced by political setting. The policy preference of maize has led service support to the agriculture discriminate against the growing of other equally rewarding crops. As a result, a biased and disproportionate agriculture emerged that was dominated by growing of maize, unfortunately encouraged even in areas that are not geographically suitable for its production (Saasa, 1996).
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