North Western Province Area Development Project

North Western Province Area Development Project

The project area included three of the six districts of North-western province, covering 65 per cent of the province’s total area. This is one of Zambia’s poorest and least developed provinces. It is also one of the most remote and sparsely populated parts of the country. Rainfall is reliable in the area, but soils are acid and shifting agricultural practices are gradually depleting the land’s fertility. People’s access to food is constantly insecure. About 47 per cent of the province is made up of protected forest and game management reserves. Poverty has forced much of the male population to migrate in search of employment. About 37 per cent of households are headed by women. Most of the children in the area are malnourished.

The project was designed to help farmers in the target area develop crops on a commercial scale. It gave emphasis to traditional crops such as cassava and sorghum that grow best in the difficult conditions found in the province. Most of the farmers in the area are smallholders. The project worked to disseminate technical knowledge about improved agricultural practices to the farmers, as well as to provide them with credit and expand local markets, providing small-scale transport and processing facilities. It also made funds available for the construction and rehabilitation of community facilities such as health centres, shallow wells and primary schools. Government agricultural services were encouraged to focus on the immediate needs of the farm population in order to promote self-sustaining economic growth in the area. The National Biological Control Programme, a key component of the first phase of the project, has proved outstanding in its control of cassava pests.

Source: IFAD