the zambian agriculture series, part one: maize
maize - zea mays - is not native to zambia or to africa. it is a new world crop, domesticated in mexico approximately 9,000 years ago, introduced to africa through portuguese trade routes in the sixteenth century. in the four hundred years since its introduction, maize has displaced most of the traditional staple crops that fed central africa - sorghum, millet, and in the north cassava - to become so dominant that for most zambians, the word nshima means specifically maize nshima, and the question "have you eaten?" means "have you had nshima today?"
zambia produces approximately 3 to 4 million tonnes of maize per year in a good harvest season - and significantly less in a drought year. the 2024 El nino-induced drought across southern africa reduced zambia's maize harvest to approximately 50 percent of the previous year's output, triggering a national food security emergency and requiring significant food imports and humanitarian food assistance.
this vulnerability is the mono-crop question. zambia has built its food security system - its national grain reserve, its agricultural support programmes, its smallholder farming subsidies - almost entirely around one crop. the farmer input support programme (FISP), which subsidises fertiliser and seed for smallholder farmers, was designed primarily around maize production. the food reserve agency (FRA), which buys grain from smallholder farmers at a guaranteed price, buys primarily maize.
when maize succeeds, the system works. when maize fails - as it does in drought years, and as climate change projects it will fail more frequently - the entire food security system fails with it.
the agronomic case for diversification: sorghum and millet, which are more drought-resistant than maize; cassava, which can stay in the ground for two years as a living food bank; soybeans, which fix nitrogen in the soil and are one of the most valuable cash crops in the world. a zambia that grows a mix of these crops is a zambia whose food security does not collapse in a single bad rainfall year.
but diversification is not just an agronomic decision. it is a social, cultural, and economic decision - and it will only happen if the market infrastructure for alternative crops is developed alongside the agronomic knowledge.
the zambian agriculture series continues. 🇿🇲🌾
the zambian agriculture series, part one: maize
maize - zea mays - is not native to zambia or to africa. it is a new world crop, domesticated in mexico approximately 9,000 years ago, introduced to africa through portuguese trade routes in the sixteenth century. in the four hundred years since its introduction, maize has displaced most of the traditional staple crops that fed central africa - sorghum, millet, and in the north cassava - to become so dominant that for most zambians, the word nshima means specifically maize nshima, and the question "have you eaten?" means "have you had nshima today?"
zambia produces approximately 3 to 4 million tonnes of maize per year in a good harvest season - and significantly less in a drought year. the 2024 El nino-induced drought across southern africa reduced zambia's maize harvest to approximately 50 percent of the previous year's output, triggering a national food security emergency and requiring significant food imports and humanitarian food assistance.
this vulnerability is the mono-crop question. zambia has built its food security system - its national grain reserve, its agricultural support programmes, its smallholder farming subsidies - almost entirely around one crop. the farmer input support programme (FISP), which subsidises fertiliser and seed for smallholder farmers, was designed primarily around maize production. the food reserve agency (FRA), which buys grain from smallholder farmers at a guaranteed price, buys primarily maize.
when maize succeeds, the system works. when maize fails - as it does in drought years, and as climate change projects it will fail more frequently - the entire food security system fails with it.
the agronomic case for diversification: sorghum and millet, which are more drought-resistant than maize; cassava, which can stay in the ground for two years as a living food bank; soybeans, which fix nitrogen in the soil and are one of the most valuable cash crops in the world. a zambia that grows a mix of these crops is a zambia whose food security does not collapse in a single bad rainfall year.
but diversification is not just an agronomic decision. it is a social, cultural, and economic decision - and it will only happen if the market infrastructure for alternative crops is developed alongside the agronomic knowledge.
the zambian agriculture series continues. 🇿🇲🌾
