Background

Agriculture is at the centre of livelihoods, revenues, food, and nutritional security, as well as trade and regional integration for countries in the East and Southern African region. According to the Zambia Statistics Agency data, contribution to GDP is computed to about 7.5%, and agriculture only accounts for 8.1% of employed persons(though biggest employer in informal sector) according to the Zambia Labour Force report (2019) and largest sector supporting rural livelihoods and women employment. Domestic production consists of crops such as maize, sorghum, millet, and cassava while exports are driven by sugar, soybeans, coffee, groundnuts, rice, and cotton as well as horticultural produce. 

With suitable agro-ecological conditions, diverse arable land, and about 40% of Southern Africa’s freshwater, the country can position itself as a breadbasket for the region. In fact, for maize, production increased 69% to 3.4 million metric tonnes compared to 2 million metric tonnes last year. Whilst Zambia has maintained a trade surplus when it comes to agriculture trade, when it comes to food trade save for maize, there remains a large gap coupled with an increasing demand. Zambia has prioritized food processing as one of the promising subsectors to improve its manufacturing sector growth from 5% to 20% on average p.a. and to improve its manufacturing sector contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) from 8% to 15% by 2027(ZDA,2020). Despite the great potential, the sector is characterized by decreasing productivity and competitiveness as several constraints that limit inclusive participation in regional trade, limiting the great economic benefits that it is supposed to achieve. 

It is against this background that the USAID Policy LINK project, as part of its “Strengthening Competitiveness in Regional Agricultural Trade” (SCRAT) activity, carried out a competitiveness analysis focusing on evidence and learning, to identify critical elements for agricultural trade competitiveness and propose solutions or alternative approaches to solve key challenges in regional trade. The countries of focus for the Study included Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. 

At the country level, the Zambia Association of Manufacturers, Prospero Zambia,  Zambia Development Agency and others  have also carried out various analyses on agriculture value chain, agro-processing and manufacturing assessing the various constraints, policy and institutional issues affecting agriculture competitiveness issues in Zambia. The findings of these collective studies will inform a series of national dialogues in select countries in the region that will culminate in a regional policy dialogue that will provide a platform for further regional discourse and joint solutions to increase intra-regional agricultural trade and competitiveness.

Desirous of driving change and strengthening concerted approaches to addressing agricultural trade competitiveness in Zambia, the above stakeholders will be convening the Agricultural Trade Competitiveness Dialogue (the Dialogue), as part of a series of engagements with national stakeholders for discussion, consensus, learning and joint action, based on the key objectives below.

View a summary of key findings from the Policy LINK study.

Continuous Engagement

The initial dialogue will take place on 7th December 2021, during which a tentative roadmap will be agreed upon by all stakeholders for continuous engagement that will include:

• Consolidation of key actions that are currently being undertaken, actions that need to be taken and highlighting the gaps that remain.

• Agreement on the collaborative approach for addressing key actions and gaps.

• Continued planning, review, and taking stock of the agreed actions to monitor and strengthen implementation.

• Agreement on the mutual accountability framework that will guide the implementation process.