Regional crop production instability in Zambia and its implications for food security

Abstract

This paper reports an attempt to measure crop production instability in Zambia at the regional or provincial levels. The objectives of this paper are: ° to measure crop production instability in Zambia’s nine regions/provinces for maize, cotton, sorghum, sunflower, soya-beans and rice. These crops are chosen because of their national importance and data availability (Fourth National Development Plan, 1989); ° to identify the correlation between the production of maize and other crops. Maize is chosen as a yardstick because it accounts for more than 60 percent of the value of crop output in Zambia (Levi and Mwanza, 1986; Sano, 1988); ° to measure the relationship between instability in yield and hectarage and the instability of production of these crops; and, ° to identify the implications of crop production instability on food security.