Monitoring and evaluation report of "the impact of information and communication technology service (ICTs) among end users in the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives in Zambia"

Abstract

Agriculture constitutes a key livelihood source for over 75% of the rural households in Zambia. A total of
1,305, 783 households in Zambia are totally dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and are classified as
agricultural households (CSO, 2000). Most (81.8%) of the population in agricultural households is based in
rural areas of the country. Of the 1,305,783 agricultural households, 99.2% is engaged in crop production as a
major agricultural activity. At national level, the sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP)
averaged over 18% in the past decade. The real growth rate in the sector has fluctuated significantly mainly
due to heavy dependence on seasonal rain-fed crops, poor communication network and low farmer access to
improved technologies that are resilient to some of the natural shocks such as drought, pests and diseases.
Despite the evidence of the important contribution the sector makes to household food and nutrition security
and the national economy, the sector faces a number of challenges to increased productivity. Other than the
natural calamities and socio-economic factors such as access to agricultural inputs, credit facilities and
markets, poor access to agricultural information remains a decisive challenge to increased agricultural
productivity at household level. The prevailing low crop and livestock productivity among small-scale
farmers could greatly be attributed to low farmer access to and utilization of agricultural technologies that
are meant to enhance productivity. Utilization of such technologies has been poor among the illiterate
farming community because such information is not available to such target groups in the right formats as
some of the publications are either presented in a highly technical format which makes them too difficult to
be understood by illiterate farmers. This situation is further worsened by the poor, inadequate and weak
communication links between research, extension and farmers.