Zambia is a landlocked country in southern Africa covering an area of approximately 3,520 miles, with a population of approximately 14million people. Mining is the biggest contributor to the government coffers in terms of revenue, while Agriculture is the biggest employer in the Economy.
Some facts about Agric sector are:
Agriculture in Zambia supports the livelihoods of over 70% of the population. 78% of
women in Zambia are engaged in agriculture, compared with 69% of men.
• Zambia’s economy has grown steadily in real terms since 2001. However the percent
contribution of the agricultural sector to GDP has declined from 16% in 2001 to
12.6% in 2009.
• Cropping characteristics: Small-scale farming systems in Zambia are overwhelmingly
dominated by a single crop: Maize. In 2009/10, 81.72% of all
smallholders grew maize. Cassava cultivation, the second most important staple food
crop, is geographic confined to the north and northwestern parts of Zambia.
Groundnuts, the second most widely cultivated crop in Zambia and important source
of protein in Zambian diets, are frequently intercropped with maize. In Zambia,
groundnuts are often considered a women’s crop due to their importance for home
• Yields: Yields for all crops in Zambia are well below global averages. However,
while national yields are low, the top 10% of smallholders achieve yields that are one
to nearly four metric tons (mt) more than average depending on the crop. This
suggests the potential for yield improvements in Zambia.
• Input use: While input use has trended upward since 2001, 60% of Zambia farmers
still do not use fertilizer on their fields, while more than 60% do not use hybrid maize
Our Innovation cuts across many missions raised above of Access to information, and connection to markets hence linking them to storage an processing .It is not only a market mapping platform but one that will also help the farmer diversify the goods they can cultivate or rear.
This is an interactive Mobile App that sits on Android platform, it helps Farmers access daily information on whether they are doing Organic or non Organic Farming be it crop or for Meat, Diary and we have added Hyde production as to how they can best keep animal skin in this case for cattle as we have a ready market for the farmers with Zambeef in Zambia.This a platform that will enhance the ability of scaling up majority marginalised farmers who happen to be women and youths from being Small scale farmers to Large scale.
The Farming landscape in Zambia and many countries is the non availability of farming support systems that will guide them in their daily operations as to how they can Cultivate their crop or rear their Animals, in short the extension support services are not very effective hence affect Farmers productivity.With a Farmer being efficient in their productivity they will then inturn gain confidence and increase their ability to optimise the resources they have hen increase in Productivity.
Access to Market information is one challenge Farmers are facing hence they lose out of their actual sales as they do not get real value from their commodity for the middle men capitalise on their desperation to sale for money.If we only provided a platform that improves productivity we will still be at the same point fail because they will need to find a market t sell this to,hence productivity being mapped to access to market information and actual markets to trade in, this will also empower Farmers from just being raw material producers to value addition processes too.Again access to market information is not all as Farmers will have to know how to produce what market wants when it wants and standards to be used to produce what market needs.
Knowledge exchange is one other challenge that the farmers have as their is no single opportunity that can have them chatting frequently, their are some Facebook groups but it is difficult to have any one follow up the many discussions that go on as there is no chat management to thread up the different discussions.with the system we have built its GIS activated hence the extension officers on the other hand have a chance to review challenges the Farmers are facing thereby they can respond and give advise online and for challenges that they have to go to they can then move to that location hence improve the extension services efficiency, which in turn improve the efficiency of the farmer to produce what market needs