Agriculture, future scenarios for Southern Africa : Livestock sector in Zambia and rising food prices

The present research chose to focus on rising prices in the Zambian livestock sector because of the role livestock has in food security, the controversy of livestock disease management in Zambia and the challenges faced by the livestock sector to meet expectations. [...] Zambia has in place targets for the agriculture sector outlined in the National Agriculture Policy 2004–2015 document and the Fifth National Development Plan for 2006–2010.2 Zambia’s development efforts need to be in line with the simultaneous pursuit of national interests and the safeguarding of international trade interests in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. [...] The level of subsidization in the agriculture sector, coupled with the growing strains of indebtedness to the international community, bad spells of weather patterns and the collapse of the copper-mining sector, were among the factors that stimulated the demand for a transition from a socialist state into a democratic liberal state in 1991. [...] The farmers’ inability to adjust to the free market system due to the culture of not selling animals because of their status as a sign of wealth and the lack of profitable incentive for the private sector to provide this service in remote rural areas has made it difficult to harness the full potential benefits of a liberal economy. [...] EIF ■ increasing the resource allocation of finances under the Integrated Framework for each beneficiary country; ■ restricting the criteria for beneficiary countries under EIF to LDCs; and ■ improving the management of the Integrated Framework process at the individual country level and the operations of support institutions.