Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Out Grower Projects In Reducing Poverty In Rural Zambia A Case Of The Eastern Province

Author : Nicholas Manda
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (917 download)

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Download or read book Assessing the Effectiveness of Farmer Input Support Programme on Rural Poverty and Household Food Security Among Small Scale Farmers written by Nicholas Manda and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zambia, like any other developing country is faced with the problem of reducing high rural poverty and household food insecurity. Despite the country sustaining a real economic growth of more than 5% since the year 2005, the majority of Zambians still live in poverty as economic growth has not resulted in uplifting the well-being of the poor. In addition, the exposition of the population to economic reforms market economic liberalisation facilitated by the SAP and unfavourable weather conditions (droughts) has increased peoples vulnerability to poverty. The severity of poverty is more pronounced in rural areas than urban areas thereby necessitating the need to intervene through farmer input support programme to bring the situation under control. The main objective of the dissertation was to assess the effectiveness of FISP on rural poverty reduction through raising income and its effect on household food security. To achieve the above objective, the paper was guided by two specific objectives; (i) to assess the impact of FISP on rural poverty by increasing income of the target population and (ii) to examine the extent to which FISP contributes to household food security on the targeted small-scale farmers in Zambia. Further, the paper tested two hypotheses: (i) FISP has no impact on raising small-scale farmers income and hence rural poverty reduction on the target population and (ii) FISP has a positive impact on household and national food security. The papers main research problem was that despite the government had been spending huge sums of money on FISP with a view to reduce poverty, the high incidence of rural poverty raises questions about the effectiveness of the program to address the problem. The paper combined both desk-top and quantitative studies in the methodological approach. Literature from international development organisations on FISP and a wide range of journals, research papers and articles have been used to guide the discussion, analysis, and drawing of conclusions and recommendations. Further, a field data-set collected by IAPRI in conjunction with the Central Statistical Office on FISP was used to test the above hypotheses. Despite the government implementing various input support programmes (FCP, FISP, FSP and FSPP) to empower small-scale farmers in terms of access to income and improve household food security, the programmes have been marred with a lot of operational challenges. There has been undercoverage of the poor and leakage of the programme to the non-poor. The causes of targeting errors have been partly due to entry requirements (cooperative membership fees, access xii to land) which have acted as an exclusion mechanism for the poor farmers who cannot afford to pay membership fees. In addition, acquisition of entitlements ability to cultivate between 0.5 ha and 5ha to qualify for participation has excluded the poorest of the poor who cannot meet the entitlement requirements. Targeting efficiency has been further weakened by the requirement to pay cash upfront payment before collecting fertiliser which has disadvantaged the genuinely poor who cannot meet the subsidy input cost. Leakage (type II error) has been necessitated by the government assumption that larger farmers are efficient in fertiliser usage and hence maize production than smaller farmers. This has led to disproportionate allocation of fertiliser in favour of larger farmers who reap the benefits of the programme. The paper has also highlighted that FISP has contributed to increase in maize production in Zambia resulting in the country achieving national food self-sufficiency. However, the increase in maize production has not translated into poverty reduction. Rural poverty has remained high at 77.8% despite implementing the programme for more than a decade. The high rural poverty incidence is explained by the fact that increase in maize production is achieved by the less poor with more land, asset base and income On average they sell 1.7 to 15.1 tons of maize to FRA as compared to 135kg sold by small farmers cultivating less than 2 ha of land. In addition, larger farmers receive more subsidised inputs than poor farmers thereby empowering the non-target population of the programme. Political interference has further led to arbitrariness in the selection of programme participants resulting in leakage of fertiliser to commercial outlet where it is sold. Late delivery of inputs has also led to reduction in the yield per hectare as it reduces the maize response rate to fertiliser - fertiliser improves crop performance when applied at the recommended time. The paper concludes that FISP has no impact on raising the income of the target population and thus on rural poverty reduction. However, FISP has a positive impact on national and household food security though undernourishment and food inadequacy has been rising since 2002. The paper recommends the following; (i) government should implement narrow targeting to concentrate the benefits of the program on the poor, (ii) government should put up a deliberate land empowerment policy through resettlement scheme, (iii) government should promote small-scale irrigation to fight seasonal food insecurity and (iv) Ministry of Agriculture should regulate cooperatives and ensures that the membership fees they change are affordable by the poor.