About Us

The Zambia Agribusiness and Trade Project (ZATP) is a Government of the Republic of Zambia Project being implemented through the Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry (MCTI) with support from the World Bank. The project commenced in July 2017 and will run for five years.

The project speaks to high level national objectives with regard to Government’s determination to attain the Vision 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In line with the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP), the ZATP supports poor and emerging farmers to the greatest extent possible so as to ensure that they graduate from their current levels of production into flourishing agriculture productive ventures across all the value chains available in our country.

The project also seeks to boost growth oriented Agribusiness SMEs by investing in both their technical and productive capabilities and business management skills. This will enable them to link into large buyers and grow their businesses into sustainable ventures that will not just increase agricultural production and trade but also create employment.

The project will address the various constraints that are faced by farmers and MSMEs which include but are not limited to:

1)         Inadequate infrastructure;

2)         High cost and limited availability of long-term finance;

3)         Low labour productivity; and

4)         Weak market information systems and economy-wide coordination failures among others.

The ZATP will also support the enhancement and streamlining of a range of policies that are needed to provide a robust and enabling environment for the conduct of agribusiness and trade. A lot of work will go into improving the policy framework and strengthening the National Quality and Logistics Infrastructure needed to support Agribusiness and Trade.

 

The project also works with other institutional stakeholders, specifically: the Business Regulatory Review Agency (BRRA); The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to ensure that issues of quality, fair trade and competition as well as Business Regulation that impact on Agribusiness and Trade are enabling. Other institutions include: Zambia Development Agency (ZDA); Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS); and relevant agencies in the Ministries of Agriculture and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.

ZATP Component 1 at a Glance

Market Linkages in Agribusiness

This component supports the development of market linkages in agribusiness focusing on two sets of beneficiaries, namely; ‘emerging and poor farmers’ and growth-oriented agribusiness SMEs.

The project will focus on improving the ability of emerging farmers and agribusiness SMEs to sustainably and commercially link into larger markets by structuring support around off take opportunities identified by the private sector as high potential.

The project will achieve this in a two way approach:

The first approach is through supporting initiatives aimed at Building Productive Alliances in Zambia. This will entail facilitating investments in productive knowhow and financial capacity of poor and emerging farmers in order to boost their productive capacities in terms of both quantity and quality of their produce. This will then place the farmers in a good position to be able to sell their produce consistently and at sustainable prices to various buyers.

The project’s second approach is an SME Supplier Development Program. This initiative is going to promote the quantitative and qualitative growth of agribusiness SMEs so that they can transform into stable and consistent suppliers of a variety of agro products to established large buyers in different end-markets.

In both approaches, the project’s objective is to move its target clients – emerging farmers and agribusiness SMEs – from their current levels of productivity to higher levels through both financial and technical assistance support that will result in their becoming effective and competitive players in their respective value chains.

ZATP Component 2 at a Glance

Strengthening the Regulatory and Institutional Framework for Agribusiness and Trade

Component 2 will support the strengthening of the regulatory and institutional framework that will facilitate the smooth conduct of Agribusiness and trade and create market linkages within the country and across the borders.

Two strategies will be used to achieve the objectives of this component:

The first strategy will focus on Strengthening Capacity for Business Regulation, competition and National Quality Infrastructure. Under this strategy the project will support institutional and capacity strengthening for a number of regulatory institutions such as the Business Regulatory Review Agency (BRRA), the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS).

In particular, the project will work with these institutions to deliver on the attainment of very specific outputs designed to be benchmarks indicating progress in improving institutional and regulatory capacities of the relevant institutions.

The project will thus extend financial support to these institutions upon completion of independently verified achievement of these milestones all of which are tailored towards a better enabling of agribusiness and trade in the country.

The second strategy under this component is Promoting Trade Facilitation. This intervention seeks to contribute towards addressing the gap that currently exists due to the country’s lack of a logistics strategy and its resulting impact on trade in general and agribusiness trade in particular.

Under this strategy therefore, the project will support the development of a National Logistics Strategy which should eventually inform the national rollout of a multi sectorial logistics infrastructure to support the smooth conduct of trade including agribusiness trade.

In addition, the project will also support the implementation of the National Quality Infrastructure in order to boost product quality and standards for Zambian products including agro produce so that producers can meet required product quality standards and in return get better financial retains for their products.