Although conservation farming (CF) has been promoted in Zambia for 20 years, rates of adoption remain
low with evidence of widespread dis-adoption. The most commonly used CF technique is minimum
tillage (MT), in which farmers prepare land by hand with permanent planting basins or with an ox-drawn
ripper. In this exercise, we use a set of linear programming (LP) household models to understand the
likelihood of adoption of minimum tillage techniques for maize production in study site 2, located in
Eastern Province. We explore the following questions: What is the relative profitability of minimum
tillage production? Are farmers likely to increase production and/or expand area under cultivation when
options for minimum tillage are included in their choice set? If not, what are the obstacles to adoption,
such as labor bottlenecks and budget constraints? Finally, which household type is most likely to benefit
from minimum tillage production?