Research Brief // Coordinating Planning in the Agricultural and Water Sectors: Zambia

By Waltina Scheumann. Zambia’s agricultural sector has so far fallen short of its development potential. Just 10 percent or so of water and land resources are used for irrigated farming purposes, meaning that local and regional markets are not being served nor income and employment opportunities exploited. Against this backdrop, the Zambian Government set up the Farming Block Development Programme (FBDP) with the ambitious goal of driving agricultural commercialisation on over one million hectares of land, a considerable proportion of which will be irrigated. The FBDP builds primarily on public-private investment partnerships. At the same time, smaller irrigated areas tailored to smallholdings are being introduced with funding from the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other development partners.