Ertharin Cousin, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, has just finished a three-day visit to Zambia. After meeting President Edgar Lungu, Vice President Inonge Wina and key ministers, she travelled to the food-producing south which is experiencing the second consecutive season of erratic rain, most recently due to the effects of El Niño. There she met smallholder farmers, private sector entrepreneurs as well as local community partners and government officials who shared their insights about the challenges and opportunities.

1. My Visit To Zambia: A Country
Full Of Challenges And
Opportunities
Ertharin Cousin, the Executive Director of the World Food
Programme, has just finished a three-day visit to Zambia. After
meeting President Edgar Lungu, Vice President Inonge Wina and
key ministers, she travelled to the food-producing south which is
experiencing the second consecutive season of erratic rain, most
recently due to the effects of El Niño. There she met smallholder
farmers, private sector entrepreneurs as well as local community

2. partners and government officials who shared their insights about
the challenges and opportunities.
Bishop Mweene had a smile on his face when I met him at his homestead in
Sikwale. Shortly before my arrival, it had rained for the first time in weeks. In
fact, he was able to tell me just how much because, in his maize field, he
has a manual rain gauge, one of four that WFP has installed on farms in the
area.
Bishop Siwale Mweene (l) - Lead Farmer; Mr. Nervous Nsansaula, DAPP Coordinator; Ms. Ertharin Cousin,
Executive Director World Food Programme; ;Mr. Allan Mukando WFP Head of VAM and Ms. Elise Sorensen -
DAPP MD during the visit to the R4/CASU beneficiaries in Jamba Village.Photo:Enoch Kavindele
Bishop (a smallholder farmer, not a man of the cloth) has a large family –
several wives and 23 children. He keeps various animals and tends fields
producing maize, beans and cow peas, not just for home consumption but
also for sale. This year, however, he is unlikely to have much to sell.
Because of the lack of rain, his maize – which should be chest height at this
time of year – is only up to his knees.

3. Photo:Enoch Kavindele
The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative
WFP’s and Oxfam America’s R4 Initiative is a comprehensive risk
management approach that helps vulnerable rural households increase
their food and income security in the face of increasing climate risks.
Bishop showed me a demonstration plot where he shares tips on
climate-smart agriculture with other farmers – how to improve soil condition,
harvest rainwater and boost fertility. This is all part of an initiative called
Conservation Agriculture Scale-Up (CASU) being pioneered by the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization with support from Zambia’s Ministry of
Agriculture.
Bishop is one of 500 CASU farmers currently being supported by WFP so
they can become better able to withstand extreme weather shocks and
improve their livelihoods. We call the project R4. Participating smallholders
who practice conservation agriculture qualify to join savings groups and
secure preferential credit. Crucially, they receive insurance cover which, in
the event of crop failure, guarantees pay-outs triggered by satellite climate
data.

4. Chris Nikoi (l) Regional Director WFP; Ms. Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director World Food Programme listen to Dr.
Durton Nanja, Provincial Meteorological Officer at the R4 automated weather station at the Kanchomba Farming
Institute. Photo:Enoch Kavindele
A strong need for crop diversification
Several people I met, among them entrepreneurs in Southern Province, told
me the same thing: this country really needs crop diversification – not just
maize but other crops which have shorter growing periods, need less water
and are more nutritious. It’s not going to be easy because maize is the
staple and, traditionally, the government has not only subsidized production
but also provided an attractive market for it.
But that’s beginning to change. In Monze, the main town in the area that I
visited, I met an agri-services representative now redeeming
government-issued e-vouchers. Using these, farmers can choose whatever
seeds and inputs they want. What’s more, smallholders like Bishop seem to
be coming round to the advantages of diversification. The clincher is that a
bag of cow peas can fetch twice the price of a bag of maize.

5. Dr. Durton Nanja, Provincial Meteorological Office; Ms. Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director World Food
Programme and Chris Nikoi (l) Regional Director WFP at the R4 automated weather station at the Kanchomba
Farming Institute. Photo:Enoch Kavindele
WFP Innovations for zero hunger
Zambia offers us a good example of the tools and innovations that WFP can
offer smallholder farmers to address short-term challenges and grasp
longer-term opportunities. We at WFP don’t pretend to have all the answers.
What I do know is that smallholders like Bishop are key to achieving food
security in Africa and linking them to predictable and sustainable markets is
the way forward.
That’s why WFP is joining leading public and private sector organisations to
implement what we call the Patient Procurement Platform (“patient”
because agri-buyers and other players in the value chain are investing in
commitments to farmers that are long-term).
From small seeds grow great things. The process has already started in
Zambia where WFP is connecting multi-national buyers to emerging
farmers, signing harvest contracts with them before they have planted. I like
to think that, one day, Bishop will be among them.