Enhanced Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme

Over 61,000 smallholder farmers will benefit from the Enhanced Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme (E-SAPP), which aims to raise the incomes and increase the food and nutrition security of rural Zambian households involved in market-oriented agriculture.

The programme will achieve its goals by devising adequate strategies for increasing agricultural production; strengthening the delivery of agricultural extension services; increasing the amount of land area under irrigation and the levels of mechanization among smallholder farmers' operations; improving the efficiency of agricultural markets; and promoting access to financing.

Zambia's Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme (SAPP) has made significant progress in smallholder commercialization and agribusiness promotion. It will support E-SAPP, which will work along the entire value chain of the target commodities, from the input suppliers to the end users. The aim is to raise incomes by identifying areas where efficiency, productivity and quality can be improved, as well as to connect farmers to the value chain system and integrate the programme with other production-oriented initiatives.

E-SAPP will support building partnerships to facilitate the transformation of smallholder farmers from subsistence farming to farming as a business. Building on SAPP's achievements, the programme aims to increase the volume and value of agribusiness outputs sold by smallholder producers. It will begin with work on the policy and enabling environment, including efforts to integrate climate-risk management into policies. Through agribusiness partnerships, it will work to strengthen the capacity of smallholders and their private sector counterparts to build strong economic and trade ties. The proposed matching grant facility will help forge strong linkages among stakeholders.