zambia's national fertilizer program: a political cancer

(left to right) Dennis Sunanibamba (Pemba region cooperative leader), Willard, myself, and my host father Silas Muzuma (the other Pemba region cooperative leader) sitting on government subsidized fertilizer waiting to be picked up by local smallholder farmers (December 2009)

Agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides/herbicides, are critical to crop production. These fertilizers are expensive and sometimes hard to access. Because agriculture plays such a backbone and critical role in the economic well-being of southern Africa and in the livelihoods of its people, various national governments enacted an input subsidy program.

The case of Malawi
In the neighbouring country of Malawi, for instance, in 1998 the national government started a subsidy program to respond to increased food deficits, increased maize prices, and reliance on food aid and food imports. The Malawi subsidy program went through two critical transformations to continuously improve the program. The first program distributed small packages of fertilizer and maize seeds to smallholder farmers for free. This saw a temporary increase in production across the nation but only to result in failure later on due to program inefficiencies, the lack of targeting toward the poorest of the poorest, and the creation of negative impact toward crop diversification. With the slide back to reliance on food aid, the national government decided to turn program efficiency around 180 degrees by engaging in the private sector through a voucher system. By 2006 and 2007, Malawi experienced two years of great harvests. While the situation is far from perfect in Malawi, is the case in Zambia anywhere near as rosie? Not in the least .

Zambian political cancer
While living in Pemba during rainy season (November and December 2009), my planned facilitation activities were greatly disturbed. Farmers were busy preparing their fields and trying to secure agricultural inputs and had no time to attend NGO-workshops. Why should it consume majority of smallholder farmers time? Should subsidy programs be more simple, quick and easy? It's definitely not the case in Zambia. The Zambian Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACCO) subsidizes 60% of the cost of a 4x50 kg bag (2 x pack of basal dressing, 2 x pack of top dressing) of fertilizer. In order to be eligible for fertilizer subsidies, smallholder farmers need to be part of a co-operative. Within the cooperative, every year in late November/early December (beginning of rainy season), farmers pay their cooperative leaders the remaining 40% of fertilizer costs and have to fill out a wad of paperwork. On behalf of the smallholder farmers, the cooperative leaders then have to travel to a nearby town (sometimes as afar as 100 km away), with all the forms and money, book their own transportation, stand in HUGE line ups, and if they are lucky, will they then receive the government funded fertilizer on the same day. If not, the cooperative leaders have to pay for accommodations out of their own pocket. This process may take up to a week before the coop leaders receive all the fertilizer. Imagine... farmer cooperative leaders from all parts of the surrounding area travel to the same depot for pick-up. It tends to be chaotic and disorganized (refer to image below). Once the cooperative leaders receive all that was requested and paid for, they have to travel back home with their rented flat bed trucks filled with the goods. Once at home, cooperative leaders will either distribute the fertilizer or have a pick up depot in the center of town.

In the past, instead of having co-op leaders travel, the government would instead deliver the fertilizer to local depots. Unfortunately with this arrangement, fertilizer would mysteriously "disappear" en route. This is government corruption at its best. Farmers have complained, NGO's have raised concerns, but with a unreliable law enforcement system, nothing has been done to fix this extremely inefficient and corrupt process.

Outreach is also dismal. Pemba has approximately 4000 farmers. Only around 250 of those belong to co-operatives. Out of the 250, only 60% receive this elusive government subsidy. Furthermore, there is no separation between those who are vulnerable and those who are not. This results in extreme corruption and the fertilizer getting into the wrong hands and those who actually don't need it.

Their refusal to budge from the status quo, despite its inefficiencies and being plagued with corruption, allows government members to use the fertilizer subsidy program to maintain the power to swindle and a public presence amongst Zambian citizens.

Alternative solutions
How do you weed out corruption? How do you make the program more efficient? The answer lies in the private sector. When the profit bottom-line is introduced, unnecessary red-tape and corruption can be sieved out. Instead of distributing the fertilizer themselves, the government should allow the process to be run through the market system, by providing citizens with vouchers. Zambian smallholder farmers will then be able to redeem these vouchers through local agro-dealers and input distributors. Not only will the government be able to maintain its presence amongst the people, but it also allows for the strengthening of the local economy through the support of private small-medium enterprises in rural communities all over Zambia. Furthermore, with the increasing use and reliance on mobile phones, even amongst smallholder farmers in the most remote parts of the country, the option of mobile transfer of funds or mobile vouchers is definitely viable.

So what is the government waiting for? The Zambian government doesn't want change. They fear change will bring about the loss of control over a highly coveted system that is rich for swindling and a system that manages to hold majority of Zambian's population by their necks. Unless Zambia elects new leaders, external from the old-guard that has lead the nation since the 1960's independence era, this inefficient political cancer will continue to plague the nation for years to come.

Hundreds of farmers waiting at a depot in Monze, Zambia to receive government subsidized fertilizer

farewell pemba... see you soon

Willard and I in front of the office

Working with Willard at IDE has been a wonderful experience. I wouldn't have gotten through these past 4 months without his support. He is one of the most easy-going and most patient people I have ever met. When I would be frustrated about things, Willard would be there to pick me back up. During weekends, he would welcome me into his home to spend time with him and his family (those rascal little kids). Thanks Willard for a great 3 months. (The man needs a promotion)

Field work isn't easy; especially when the amount of output is so small compared to the amount of time, energy, and effort put into it. Despite the frustrations, I fully understand and truly believe in it's value and the importance of getting it right. It is in the field where the actual interactions with beneficiaries take place. It is in the field where smallholder farmers learn and grow. I will try my utmost best to bring these lessons that I have learned to my work with CARE-International's ADAPT project come January.

Me facilitating a farmer workshop

Willard's son Chinyanta (on top of me), and his niece and nephew.

last week with the family

On Sunday, 20th of December, I'll be moving back to Lusaka in preparation for my next placement with CARE International. These past 3 months in the village have been one of the most humbling and most valuable life experiences. When I arrived in October, I immediately felt at home. The Muzuma family is wonderful and the food they cook is absolutely delectable. I am really going to miss them.

This past week, my host father has taught me so many things about life, about hard work and about nurturing those who are trying hard to succeed in a complicated environment. At 73, his level of energy and alertness has completely blown me away.

Despite the language barrier, my senior host mother (Mr. Muzuma's first wife), definitely took care of me like I was one of their own. Her, and Mrs. Muzuma Jr.'s ability to manage a gigantic family is absolutely beyond me.

I will definitely be back a few times to visit the family within the next 8 months.

Silas Muzuma

Noria Muzuma (Sr. wife)

Albetina Muzuma (Jr. wife)

Banene - the funniest grandmother!

Me a few of the kids

Lunch at the Muzuma's

Host father preparing his field of Irish potatoes

Me with the junior wife's side of the family

Dinner with the Muzuma's

Pre-dinner warming up

Mrs. Muzuma junior cleaning the residuals from the wheat

born to be wild

My sweet ride in Pemba. I'll miss that motorbike.

frog infestation... kermit's not so cute anymore

So after a week of meetings in Lusaka, I come home to my hut only to find a family of frogs lounging around my stuff. Now, these frog don't bother humans and prefer to hide in dark areas. Normally, I would just scurry them out of my hut. But yet they kept coming back. Some nights I would be startled when my garbage bag would start moving, only to find pesky little Kermit inside.

My host father, Silas, says these frogs have a tendency to attract snakes. Snakes?! No thank you! So he taught me how to whack'em. At first, I was like "ooooo poor froggie"... but after they kept returning, I showed no mercy. I think I'll be set for those carnival "whack-a-mole" games when I return to Canada.

frustrations and successes in the field

The entire Pemba area we are responsible for. Spans over 100 sq km and over 3000 farmers.

I apologize for the lack of postings. I haven't had reliable internet access for over a month. Time really flies by. I can't believe that November just came and gone; yet there is still so much more that I want to accomplish here in Pemba. I will be moving back to Lusaka to begin my permanent assignment starting mid-December.

I am currently in Pemba partnered with IDE (International Development Entrprises). Together with Willard we try to juggle the implementation of 8 different programs to 1500 different farmers. Not only have we been given minimal resources from IDE head office, but the arrival of a national fuel shortage has complicated things even further. It's an understatement when I say that the past 3 months have been frustrating.

After working for almost 3 months doing field work, I have come to learn many things. Many of which have been massive realizations:

• Development is hard and takes a lot of time. Unlike the engineering industry, we are working with human development. We are dealing with human behaviour change. Human behaviour is unpredictable and stoubborn and cannot be solved using physics or equations.


• Change happens at the field level. When programs are not being implemented in the field with quality, regardless of how much planning or dictating has been done at head office, development will be stalled.


• Resources are, more often than not, are not optimally allocated in the NGO sector.- Donors and many of those at the top of the hierarchy in NGO's have a lack of understanding of the realities in the field. This misalignment of supply and demand has perpetuated the continued dumping of donor money into projects that end up failing. (e.g. head office is aggressively field staff to sell and distribute loans for treadle pumps, but the problem is that farmers have no markets to sell their crops and nor is head office giving any resources toward output marketing. So in the end, the desired outcome and impact is not reached)


• When working in development, multiply the estimated completion time by 4

Despite these constructive realizations, I have enjoyed working with together Willard. He is a very easy-going and patient man with a lot of heart and love for smallholder farmers. You definitely need people like him to work in such environemnts. Our job as EWB staff members is help organizations become better at what they do. However, I have been finding it difficult to find a balance between working together with Willard (help build field staff capacity) and working apart from him (gap-filling). A lot of times, I have no choice but to work apart from him given the immense responsibilities, and the minimal resources and time. Nevertheless, I have been able to accomplish some major long term planning and problem solving with Willard.

These past few months have been challenging and sometimes frustrating. However, the experience out in the field are necessary before I move back to the big city and work at the head office of CARE International. Understanding of field realities and farmer livelihoods are necessities to the design and implementation of interventions that will create long-term positive impact. I take great pride for being a part of an organization which grounds itself in the field. There is hope to development.

Microcredit Workshop

Willard Chitimbo, IDE Pemba - Lead Field Staff

Our tiny office.

Myself and IDE lead farmer Mollison Hagakwale at his garden preparing for a demonstration plot workshop

Women irrigating existing maize fields

Previous demo plot by EWB JF Mike Henrey ... what a beautiful batch of cabbage

Women patiently waiting for the Demo Plot

my own cucumber garden

My host father has kindly allocated a small portion of the family garden for me to experiment with farming. I decided to grow cucumber.

To be honest, I have zero experience and little interest in agriculture. This experience has opened my eyes to the struggles and hardwork farmers put into their daily lives in order to earn a living for their families.

These pictures were from last month. I'll have update pictures of my cucumber garden soon.