Zambia agricultural marketing support project (ZAMS)

An Agricultural Marketing Advisory Group (AMAG) led by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and a U.S. contractor will implement the project"s TA, training, and commodity components. AMAG will provide small and medium-size agribusinesses with TA, complemented by feasibility and other special studies, aimed at identifying and resolving the technical, organizational, infrastructural, and management constraints on the agricultural marketing system. Specifically, AMAG will help Zambian firms: (1) identify new products, markets, and business ventures; (2) improve their use of existing marketing capacity; and (3) monitor the impacts of market interventions. It will also strengthen the capabilities of Zambian marketing analysts and help improve both the physical functions of storage, transportation, and processing and the facilitating functions of market research, information (especially regarding price), management, grades, and standards. Two Zambian organizations, the Small Industry Development Organization and Village Industry Services, will work closely with AMAG. Training for farmers, co-op members, and marketing personnel will include: (1) in-country workshops in technical and management areas for 670 persons; (2) overseas academic training for ten government officials; (3) and short-term overseas training for 78 others. More than half of A.I.D. funds will finance commodities needed to ease critical marketing constraints, with initial focus on relieving transportation problems by importing truck tires, tubes, and spare parts; provision of trucks and ox-carts and rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads is also envisioned. Other priority items include equipment for on-farm food packing and for food processing and storage (including refrigerated units). Counterpart funds will be used, possibly, to construct wholesale and retail markets for fresh produce in selected areas. Target industries include fruit and vegetable canning and processing, commodity hauling and storage, commercial soybean and medium-scale vegetable oil processing, and cassava chipping. Project activities will be targeted on the basis of definite criteria and will have, as far as possible, a geographic focus.