Zambia Growth Opportunities (ZAMGRO)
Adaptation Need
Zambia experiences a highly variable climate, with recent decades marked by increasing climatic extremes such as droughts, seasonal and flash floods, and rising temperatures. Hazards, particularly droughts and floods, have become more frequent and severe, negatively impacting food and water security and rural livelihoods. Projections indicate that climate change-related damages to Zambia’s agriculture could reach between US$2.2 billion and US$3.1 billion over the next decade, which could result in a contraction of the economy by over 2.8%. Given the mono-modal rainfall regime, where weather patterns heavily influence agricultural activities, food security, nutrition, and income of rural households are particularly vulnerable. Building resilience of farming communities to climate change is a priority to ensure sustainable livelihoods, protect food systems, and safeguard national economic stability in the face of increasing climate risks.
GCA’s Added Value
In collaboration with the Indaba Agricultural Policy and Research Institute (IAPRI), GCA strengthened the project component aimed at expanding extension services for climate smart agriculture by assessing climate risks to key value chains and building capacity to scale digital solutions and promote green employment opportunities within Zambia’s agricultural sector.
Project goals
Mainstreaming Adaptation and Resilience
GCA mainstreamed adaptation into the ZAMGRO project through a variety of activities, including assessing climate risks to key value chains such as maize, groundnuts, sorghum, and rice, and identifying suitable digital solutions to support extension advisory services. It organized training and capacity-building sessions on Digital Climate Agricultural Services (DCAS) for farmers, extension agents, and youth to improve their understanding towards scaling adoption of these technologies. Additionally, GCA facilitated multi-stakeholder policy engagement sessions to promote private sector investments in scaling digital adaptation solutions. The support also explored opportunities to create adaptation-related jobs through the ZAMGRO project.
Expected Project Outcomes
GCA’s assistance contributed to capacity to effectively and sustainably achieve the following project outcomes:
- Improved access to and use of climate-resilient technologies and practices—605,000 hectares for crop production.
- Jobs created—5,000 jobs generated in areas benefiting from irrigation support.
- Extension services scaled up – to at least 600,000 farmers including a minimum of 160,000 women receiving extension services and completing training on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies & related extension services.
- Increased crop production and productivity—1,400,000 metric tons of maize exports
Timeline
GCA Support Status
Technical Assistance Preparation
GCA Support Implementation
July, 2022
GCA Support Completion
December, 2023
Monitoring
Finance
Project Investment Value
Total Investment Value
IFI Investment Value
$300M
Other Investment Value
N/A
Contacts
Lead contact
Project Manager
Oluwabunmi Ajilore
Food Security Specialist,Food Security & Rural Well-being
General media inquiries
info@gca.orgRequest for information
FoodsecurityTeam@gca.org