Introduction
Tour Itinerary
Destinations
Small Farm 1
Small Farm 2
Commercial Farm
Non Trad' Farm
Issues
Theories
Worksheets
Resources

Home Field Trips Itinerary and Tour Summary

Itinerary and Tour Summary

Most Zambians work and live in farming communities. Some of these are many kilometres from towns and cities and some are on the edges of large cities such as Lusaka. As economists we are interested in all aspects of production and this trip will enable you to consider the resource allocation problems and the impact that these have on the people living in rural areas.

On picking up the Four Wheel Drive Land Rover in Lusaka you are going to first head south. On the way you will get a flavour of the countryside, the homes, the shops, the roads, and the people.

There are four destinations on this tour. Scroll down the page to find out what each destination covers and where it goes.

Destination 1 - Monze Village, Southern Zambia

The village of Monze is located in the south of Zambia about 75 km north of Lake Kariba. It is the home of people from the Tonga tribe. The land is communally worked by members of the family. They produce a combination of crops with maize being the most important. Cattle and goats are also kept to provide sources of milk and meat. Young members of the family will look after them as they graze around the village on common land.

The people of the village live a hard life. Regular droughts, deteriorating land quality and government policy combine to expose the people to levels of absolute poverty that you could not imagine. The people resort to a variety of desperate ways of coping. As you visit the village you will learn something of the lifestyle of the people.

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The issues covered at this destination are:

• The Importance of Small Scale Agriculture
• Rural Lifestyles
• Rural Urban Migration
• The Role of Women
• The Impact of Drought on Poverty

Destination 2 - Small scale farm Kasame Village, Northern Provinces

This visit will enable you to see some of the problems associated with production faced by the small-scale farmers and how the government has attempted to support them. The farm you are visiting, like many in the country, produces mainly maize.

Consider the following:

• On average Zambians consumer more that 170kgs of maize per person annually.
• Maize accounts for 38% of all food consumption in Zambia.
• Small scale farmers produce 50% of all the maize produced
• 70% of agricultural land is under maize cultivation (2)

As you can see the livelihood of many people both in terms of production and consumption is dependent on this cereal crop. At Kasame you will get some clues as to why the levels of productivity are so much lower than large scale commercial Zambian farms and those in More Developed Countries. With a growing population the ability of maize farmers to produce enough for people to eat has been and continues to be a considerable cause of concern to the government.

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The issues covered at this destination are:

• The Vicious Cycle of Poverty
• Self-sufficiency
• Low Productivity of Traditional Farming Methods
• Land Tenure
• Government Policy on Land Tenure
• Government Intervention in the Maize Market
• The Impact of Farming on the Environment

Destination 3: Commercial Coffee Farming Terranova Estate Mazubuka

The Colonial Administration allocated much of the most fertile and cultivatable land to the European settlers to produce food for the urban areas that were growing up in copper belt. At independence many of these white farmers left and their lands were redistributed. Some remained, either continuing to produce maize or other crops for the Zambian market, or producing cash crops for the export market such as coffee.

The Terranova estate is a white-owned farm of over 1000 hectares employing 300 permanent workers and 2,300 temporary workers. The farm's location on some of the country's most fertile land enables it to produce high quality arabica coffee beans. The farm is part of the Zambian Coffee Growers Association, a group of 37 commercial farms and over 900 small-scale growers. Its large size enables it to benefit from a number of economies of scale.

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The issues covered at this destination are:

• Introduction to large scale agricultural production
• Coffee production in Zambia

Destination 4 - Floriculture Senzile Limited Makeni, Lusaka

Traditionally the economy of Zambia has relied on the mining and export of metals, notably copper. However as the importance of copper as an export earner is falling the government has looked to diversify production outside the traditional metal and agricultural sectors towards the marketing and production of high value commodity crops such as flowers, vegetables, herbs, spices and essential oils.

In a suburb of Lusaka, Senzile Limited, a rose growing and exporting business has set up by Zambian, Mtumbe Kamanga with the aid of loan from the European Investment Bank. He has built four green houses on two hectares on the family farm with each containing 35,000 rose plants. His business produces 2000 bunches of roses per week. They are exported to the flower markets in the Netherlands.

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The issues covered at this destination are:

• Introduction to non traditional agriculture
• Vulnerability to market conditions
• The global cut flower market