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Pro-poor access to agricultural inputs, and climate resilient technologies

Zambia: Food Security Pack (FSP)

As a direct result of consecutive, unfavourable climatic events compounded by the structural adjustment policies of the 1990s, the Zambian Government introduced the Food Security Pack (FSP) Programme in November 2000 with the aim of empowering poor, vulnerable, but viable smallholder farmer households. The programme is implemented by the Department of Community Development within the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) across all 116 districts of the country.

The FSP operates through three complementary components:

  • Rainfed Cropping: The main cropping component, comprising 10 kg of cereal seed (maize, sorghum, millet, or rice), 10 kg of legume seed (sugar beans, cowpeas, soya beans, or groundnuts), and 200 kg of fertiliser (100 kg basal + 100 kg top dressing) provided over three consecutive rainy summer seasons.
  • Wetland Cropping: A scaled-down pack comprising 10 kg of mixed cereal or vegetable seed and 100 kg of fertiliser (50 kg basal + 50 kg top dressing) for cultivation over three consecutive winter seasons. This component leverages the natural hydrological retention of Zambia's wetlands to allow for dry off-season production. In 2024, the component was scaled to over 300,000 households across all 116 districts in the country following the El Niño-induced drought.
  • Alternative Livelihood Initiative (ALI): Non-crop assets financed through the programme's 10% payback mechanism. Transfers include small livestock (goats, pigs, sheep, cattle, poultry), agricultural equipment (hammer mills, tractors, maize shellers, ox-drawn ploughs), enterprise assets (apiculture, aquaculture), and training in climate-smart agriculture and food-security activities.

Taking into consideration climate resilience, seed varieties in the cropping components are matched to Zambia's agroecological zones: southern provinces, which face shorter growing seasons and higher drought risk, receive short-maturing, drought-resilient crops. Central regions are supplied with medium-maturing varieties, while northern regions, where the rainy season is longer and more reliable, receive medium- and late-maturing varieties.

Centralised procurement of inputs by the MCDSS is combined with decentralised last-mile distribution managed by Community Welfare Assistance Committees (CWACs). The CWACs also administer the 10% payback mechanism, through which beneficiaries return a tenth of their harvest yields (in kind or monetary equivalent) after each supported season. This obligation covers the first two seasons only; in the third, beneficiaries keep their full harvest as an economic buffer before graduating. Crucially, repayments do not go to the central government. Instead, they are deposited into district pool accounts managed by CWACs, who determine reinvestment strategies in direct consultation with local communities. Finally, each proposed community project is submitted to the District Food Security Committee for a viability assessment before funds are released.

Beneficiaries are identified through a community-based, dual-level targeting process. Primary eligibility criteria (all of which must be met) include:

  1. Access to 0.5–2.0 hectares of land with adequate family labour;
  2. Household head not in formal employment;Residency in the community for at least six months.

By defining an additional secondary criterion (where at least one must apply), the programme explicitly prioritises specific vulnerable subgroups: terminally ill, elderly, child, female, disabled or unemployed youth (15 – 35 years) headed households; or households with children under 5, orphans, or with more than seven members.

In the 2025–2026 farming season, the FSP reached approximately 245,000 beneficiary households across its three components:

  • Rainfed Cropping: 200,000 households across all 116 districts.
  • Wetland Cropping: 40,000 households across 58 districts.
  • Alternative Livelihood Initiative: approximately 5,000 households across 58 districts.

During the 2024 El Niño-induced drought, the Wetland Cropping component was scaled up from its normal 40,000-household footprint to over 300,000 households across all 116 districts, following the President's declaration of a National Disaster and Emergency.

The FSP budget was ZMW 1.2 billion in both 2024 and 2025, rising to ZMW 1.5 billion in 2026.


Cost per beneficiary:

  • Approximately ZMW 4,940 per household in 2025.
  • Approximately ZMW 4,615 per household in 2026.

Multi-sectoral and decentralised. The FSP operates through a layered governance structure spanning national, district, and community levels.

  • National coordination: The Department of Community Development (MCDSS) manages centralised input procurement, programme administration, and inter-ministerial coordination.
  • District-level oversight: District Food Security Committees provide the coordination layer for food security initiatives and formally approve ALI project proposals before implementation. They also manage registration, generate deduplication reports from the FSPMIS, cross-reference FSP beneficiaries against the FISP database (ZIAMIS), and hold district recovery accounts in commercial banks
  • Community-level delivery: Community Welfare Assistance Committees (CWACs) manage last-mile distribution of inputs, organise community transport, conduct the qualitative validation step in targeting, and administer the 10% payback mechanism, determining how recovered funds from district pool accounts are used in consultation with beneficiary communities.

The FSP Management Information System (FSPMIS) is the programme's dedicated digital administration platform, representing a module within the broader Zambia Integrated Social Protection Information System (ZISPIS).

The FSPMIS transitioned from pilot to full national implementation in 2024 and manages all three programme components exclusively within its digital framework for the first time in the 2025–2026 season. The system was designed with the technical capacity to execute cross-referencing against the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) database (through a linkage with the Zambia Integrated Agriculture Management System, ZIAMIS), specifically, to identify FSP-FISP double-dippers.

FSPMIS website: https://fspmis.grz.gov.zm/

Effects of the Agricultural Food Security Pack Programme in Zambia: The Case of Mpulungu District (Tembo and Kibuka-Sebitosi, 2023)

This mixed-methods study collected data from 147 FSP beneficiary households and 152 registered non-beneficiary households awaiting programme inclusion in Mpulungu District using researcher-administered questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions with community committees and local agro-dealers. The study found that FSP participation had a statistically significant positive effect on both land area cultivated and maize crop productivity; 66% of beneficiary households cultivated between 0.25 and 0.50 hectares, compared with 61% of non-beneficiary households who cultivated less than 0.25 hectares. The impact on agricultural output was considerably larger: 70.1% of FSP beneficiaries harvested more than 20 bags of maize (50 kg each) per 0.25 hectare, compared with only 8% of non-beneficiaries, with 52% of the latter harvesting just 5 to 10 bags. The effect size was sufficient for some households to generate a marketable surplus beyond subsistence. The study also identified a systemic operational constraint: 81.6% of beneficiaries received farming inputs outside the optimal planting window due to centralised procurement delays, with only 5.4% receiving inputs on time. That positive yield outcomes were sustained despite late delivery demonstrates the programme’s capacity to expand agricultural productivity for resource-constrained smallholder households even under suboptimal input delivery conditions.

References:

Tembo R and Kibuka-Sebitosi E (2023). Effects of the Agricultural Food Security Pack Programme in Zambia: The Case of Mpulungu District. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development 23(10): 24986–25005.

The FSP's implementation history has yielded critical lessons for countries developing agricultural input transfer programmes within social protection systems:

  1. Three-season design resolves a structural graduation disincentive. The original two-season design produced a behavioural barrier: payback compliance dropped sharply in the final season when beneficiaries faced no further incentive to comply. Extending the cycle to three seasons — with payback required only for the first two — was a design choice to resolve this issue and improve overall programme integrity.
  2. Digital cross-referencing substantially reduces dual enrolment. Cross-referencing the FSPMIS with FISP databases reduced dual enrolment by 81% in one year (from 2,584 to 486 cases), demonstrating that MIS investment generates cost-effective targeting gains at scale.
  3. Graduation from FSP to FISP is theoretical, not operational. Despite the 2018 Integrated Framework for Basic Social Protection Programmes establishing a formal transition pathway, no operational linkage exists: FSP graduates face FISP co-payment barriers, cannot form the cooperatives FISP requires, and the FSPMIS does not systematically identify FISP-eligible graduates.
  4. Payback fund reinvestment requires active governance. Both the FY2023 and FY2024 Auditor General reports identified districts holding millions of kwachas in recovered payback funds idle in bank accounts rather than reinvesting them in income-generating activities as required by FSP guidelines.
  5. Diversifying input packages beyond staple cereals broadens nutrition outcomes. FSP input composition has remained focused primarily on maize production. Policy reviews note that this narrow scope limits the programme's contribution to household dietary diversity and nutrition security. The 2025 National Social Protection Policy recommends integrating nutrition-sensitive guidelines into agricultural input programmes to broaden impact across the lifecycle.

In Zambia:


International:

MCDSS website pages:


FSPMIS website: https://fspmis.grz.gov.zm/

Reports:

SDG 1: No Poverty

  • Target 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
  • Target 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
  • Target 1.5: By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

  • Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
  • Target 2.3: By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and the incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
  • Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality

SDG 5: Gender Equality

  • Target 5.a: Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws

SDG 13: Climate Action

  • Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
Access to extension and rural advisory services;
Farmer registry;
Multilevel governance;
Integrated programmes for climate and shock resilience

Related Policy Instruments

Pro-poor access to agricultural inputs, and climate resilient technologies