The Zambia Economist recently wrote a very interesting article related to the effects of the Zambia Food Reserve Agency’s (FRA) maize buying and selling practices, titled “A Broken Maize Marketing Policy”. This article is very much relevant to the work that we do as the Agricultural Value Chains team in Zambia. …»
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 1 comment | Category: From The Field |  Tags: Chola Mukanga - FRA - maize - market price - price setting - Zambian Economist. 
During the month of October, I had the fortunate opportunity to work with a rural agricultural agent, located in the rural village of Kalanje in Zambia’s Eastern province. The agent was trained to be a sales person and advisor on chemical products for an agro-chemical supplier. During my time with the …»  7 comments | Category: Failure Reports | Tags: business - capacity building - field realities - field work - monitoring and evaluation - training - workshops. There is a common acknowledgment among those working closely in development projects in African countries that the numbers conveyed to donors are not a realistic representation of field realities. Donors request monitoring and evaluation systems, and rightly so, there is a need to ensure that their monies are being used as allocated and projects …» Comment | Category: From The Field | Tags: innovation - monitoring and evaluation - uneven playing field - unrealistic. 
Because I’ve been working in the agricultural sector in Malawi and Zambia for the past two years I’m very interested in farmers’ purchasing practices. When I visit a village I usually ask the farmers there where they are buying their seed, and why they’ve made that choice. Farmers most often answer that they choose small …» 2 comments | Category: From The Field | 
On the surface, it sounds exciting: a Saudi firm has recently announced that it will invest $125 million USD on 5,000 acres of land in Zambia by building a factory to manufacture pineapple juice. As I peruse the aisles of large supermarkets here in Zambia, it is evident that the shelves are packed with …» Comment | Category: From The Field | Tags: exports - imports - pineapple - processor - Saudi Arabia - smallholder farmers - value-chain. 
In an earlier article, I highlighted how market forces can be used to drive interventions to scale, aided by the built-in mechanisms that help ensure quality and sustainability. However, there are many challenges and problems which may arise from using market forces to induce expansion of an idea. These could include a lack …» Comment | Category: From The Field | Tags: agriculture - business - development - donor constraints - NGO - quality - scale up. |
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