Economists have long held that broad-based agricultural growth is the most powerful source
of poverty reduction in developing countries where most of the rural population is engaged in
agriculture (Johnston and Mellor 1961; Mellor 1974; Lipton 2006). However, in Zambia’s
case, despite sustained and fairly robust agricultural growth since 2000, rural poverty levels
have remained at about 80% over the past 15 years. This indicates that productivity in the
agricultural sector needs to be increased, especially considering that no country, apart from
the island economies of Singapore and Hong Kong, has been able to sustain rapid transition
out of poverty without raising the productivity in its agricultural sector. Over 70% of
Zambia’s agricultural households are small-scale farmers cultivating less than two hectares of
land. A form of agricultural growth in which this group effective participates in the growth
process is likely to be one of the only effective ways of achieving rapid reductions in rural
poverty in Zambia.