Production, Finance, and Technology (PROFIT+)

A combination of low productivity, maizecentric farming, and poor value chain development for diversified crops has resulted in stagnated agricultural growth in Zambia. PROFIT+ builds on previous USAID-funded activities by connecting agricultural input supply with output markets, promoting value-added rural enterprises linked to selected value chains as well as ensuring women fully benefit from value chain development. The activity focuses on increasing agricultural productivity and expanding markets and trade in Feed the Future (FTF) Zambia focus value chains such as maize, oilseeds and legumes (particularly groundnuts, soya, and sunflower) in the Eastern Province economic corridor. Specifically, activities include the identification and dissemination of productivity enhancing technologies to farmers, the development of value chain finance schemes to increase access to credit, the development of an export strategy for these value chains, and improving the capacity and governance of smallholder cooperatives to increase market linkages to high value processing. PROFIT+ will achieve a 30% increase in productivity and income from selected value chains, benefit 800,000 smallholder farmers, and increase the value of agricultural sales by $125 million, in particular for value-added processing, by 2017.