Zambia’s fast-growing agricultural sector faces unprecedented challenges. Unpredictable climate shocks, tightening fiscal pressures, and outdated market structures make the sector unable to fully adapt to modern realities. The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GoRZ), however, is responding with an ambitious agricultural reform agenda aimed at unlocking competitiveness, strengthening resilience, and accelerating private sector-led growth. These reforms are opportunities to deepen impact while supporting Zambia’s long-term vision for food security and inclusive economic development.
The Business Enabling Project (BEP), funded by the US Government and implemented by DT Global, was designed to advance frontier shifts to drive this transformation. Through BEP, we served as a strategic, technical, and facilitative partner to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), among other institutions, shaping and operationalizing Zambia’s priority agricultural reforms.
The three main pillars — market system modernization, institutional strengthening, and policy and regulatory reform — have all benefited greatly from our assistance. Collectively, these efforts reflect DT Global’s long-standing expertise in climate-smart agriculture and rural development. We’ve strengthened the sector by building a foundation that future initiatives can leverage and scale.
Working within Zambia’s agricultural reform agenda, we supported the modernization of critical policies essential for healthy markets. We provided technical assistance and analysis for reforms identified in the Comprehensive Agriculture Transformation Support Programme (CATSP), a flagship agricultural policy framework launched in July 2025, which, among others, had these legal interventions:
Food Reserve Act
The existing Food Reserve Agency (FRA) structure allows unlimited government grain purchases and, without clear market-entry rules, distorts the market with an unintended impact on private sector investment. We supported the MoA in designing reforms that introduced an annual Strategic Grain Reserve purchase limit and clearer market entry rules. These changes have promoted predictable pricing, encouraging private sector participation, especially in grain storage infrastructure provision.
Agricultural Credits Act
To strengthen Zambia’s underused Warehouse Receipt System, BEP identified gaps between the Agricultural Credits Act and the Securities Act. Our economic analysis further provided the roadmap to modernize the Act, aiming to improve liquidity on common exchanges and expand rural financing options for smallholder farmers.
Agricultural Marketing Bill
Dormant since 2010, this Bill was fast-tracked. DT Global helped the revision process, clarifying regulatory roles and recommending data-driven decision-making mechanisms through a reconfigured Agricultural Marketing Advisory Council.
Collectively, these reforms constitute Zambia’s most significant policy advances in over a decade, laying the groundwork for investment in market systems development (MSD), in which we lead, as well as private-sector investment.
BEP supported MoA to develop and launch the 2024-2028 National Crop Diversification Strategy (NCDS), aligned with Zambia’s climate resilience and economic transformation priorities. On this, we provided end-to-end support, including technical review and final strategy editing; financing and coordinating its national launch; and designing the implementation matrix across seed control and certification, market support services, and institutional and legal framework strengthening.
The strategy tackles Zambia’s over-dependency on maize, which exposes smallholder farmers to climate and price shocks. It elevates high-potential, climate-resilient value chains, including mushrooms, legumes, horticulture, oil seeds, and other underutilized crops, with strong prospects for regional and international trade. For industry players, especially in private sector development, this strategy offers a clear government-endorsed roadmap for investing in climate resilience, nutrition, and diversified value chains.
Our technical support to the FISP modernization has been central to Zambia’s reform agenda. At MoA’s request, BEP conducted both a rapid assessment of the e-FISP rollout and a baseline study to support longitudinal tracking and impact evaluation. The evidence generated from these studies is helping steer Zambia toward a more efficient, private sector-driven input delivery.
The findings from the study include strong redemption rates (97%) but limited full redemption (26%) due to shortages of key inputs; underdeveloped agro-dealer networks in rural areas; long travel distances for farmers accessing inputs (average 23–31 km); and strong performance of the ZIAMIS digital platform, with manageable technical issues. This prompted recommendations that emphasized direct engagement with rural agro-dealers, improved telecommunications and storage infrastructure, better input variety to support crop diversification, and timely funds disbursement, now informing e-FISP expansion to 74 districts.
BEP helped address redundant inter-district agricultural levies that increased transport costs and hindered market expansion. DT Global mapped existing levies, facilitated local authorities’ dialogues, and recommended harmonized fee structures to reduce barriers to trade. This is the foundation for future investment to boost regional trade, profitability, and market integration.
DT Global strengthened institutions anchoring Zambia’s agricultural sector. The Agribusiness Association of Zambia (ABAZ) received support on strategic planning, policy advocacy, communications, and staffing, leading MoA to recognize it as a key e-FISP partner. The National Association for Smallholder Farmers (NASFA) was supported to scale the Tulime App, an integrated digital platform connecting farmers to markets, loans, extension services, and onboarding to FISP. DT Global also served as Secretariat to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock (AgFiLi) Cooperating Partners Group (CPG) for nine months, helping coordinate development partners around CATSP priorities.
Our work through BEP demonstrates Zambia’s readiness for deeper, more ambitious agricultural investment. With ongoing legal reforms, national crop diversification, and better-prepared institutions, Zambia is now strengthened to scale, whether in climate-resilient value chains, digital agriculture, or market systems, while expanding rural agro-dealer networks and opening international market access. Built on over 50 years of continuous work in Africa, DT Global remains committed to supporting the GoRZ in building a more resilient, competitive, and prosperous agricultural sector.
