By Clive Siachiyako
Secondly, there is need for government and other interest groups to consult people in rural areas and find out what they really need. This is because rural people are capable, creative and committed actors of change. Rural people must be involved in policy making processes, in market change and trade designing. In addition, the local communities’ focus and empowerment are imperative in the execution of rural development and poverty reduction programmes. It is the people themselves who have to decide what they want to do, to change and improve their lives. They have to take full responsibility of there lives, design the means with which they can improve their living conditions and develop a vision of how their lives can change. That is; do what they can do, with what they have, where they are.
Quite often women in rural areas are excluded from extension and credit deliveries. But development planners and donor agency personnel can benefit from obtaining more information from both women and men in the rural areas before making judgments as to the kinds of development which are most desired. Since women in Zambia are the major food producers, development efforts must not exclude them from new technologies. On women participation Bardouille (1992:121) explains that a research was conducted to find out how rural women perceived development and whether they had benefited from development efforts they had helped in planning. The sample was drawn from rural women in selected provinces of Zambia. The rural women defined or perceived development in terms of improvements in farming, availability of educational and health facilities, transportation, etc. The women believed that development had taken place, although there was room for more improvement in the area.
Rural development can further be addressed through community based initiatives. This form of developmental approach is very important because it insures local participation. A good example of such an initiative is by a Japanese organization called JICA. JICA’s targets towards the reduction of poverty among small scale farmers in isolated regions includes the training of advisors to lead participatory development initiatives, the establishment of small-scale “micro-projects” for the community, and the introduction of sustainable farming technology. The aim is to help rural communities to achieve self-sufficiency. The development method used in these projects is designed to involve residents and communities (villages). Local people carry out all aspects of these projects, from planning to implementation, and also take responsibility for ongoing agricultural development. An example of a village located in an isolated region is Kapuka, which consists of 196 households. The only industry is farming, which yields annual incomes averaging only about $260 per household. In addition to food shortages, the community also faces shortages of drinking water in the dry season. With the assistance of advisors, JICA held a workshop at which all village residents discussed the steps that they needed to take to achieve sustainable development. External funding at the rate $100 per household has been provided for projects such has the establishment of a broiler poultry, construction of multipurpose facility for use as a meeting hall, elementary school and crop rotation and the establishment of communal scheme to grow maize in the dry season. The other things which have been done in the area include the introduction of oxen and ox-drawn plows, the construction of wells to provide drinking water, the purchase of sewing machines and finally the provision of training required for the various projects , (http://www.ruraldevelopment.org.zm/). This idea must be emulated by government and other organizations and should be spread to other rural p
arts of the country.
One thing to be taken into consideration is that peasant farmers in rural areas do act rationally and are responsive to economic incentives and opportunities. Where innovation and change fail to occur, we should not assume that rural people are stupid, irrational, or conservative; instead, we should examine carefully the environment in which the small farmer operates to search for the particular institutional or commercial obstacles that may be blocking or frustrating constructive change. Todaro (2003:478) illustrates that if peasants sometimes appear to be unresponsive or hostile to proposed technical changes, it is probably because the risks are high, returns to the cultivator are low-for example, because of local custom or land tenure conditions, or because credit facilities and marketing outlets are inadequate and the necessary inputs – including knowledge –are missing. Technological innovation is also cardinal in every developmental process in that it can increase farm yields. This involves the introduction of mechanized agriculture to replace human labor. This can be in form of tractors and combine harvesters. The only problem is that this type of innovation is not suitable to the physical environment. Another problem is that a peasant rural farmer cannot afford to obtain a loan or use other sources to acquire these things because he does not know how to go about obtaining a loan and cannot easily attract funds from other sources. Furthermore potential lenders of such resources know that he has no capacity to pay back. Hence this innovation can be approached in a different way where government and other support groups are able to supply rural areas with hybrid seeds and chemical innovations such as pesticides fertilizers and insecticides. Advanced techniques of irrigation should be introduced together with crop rotation. The other technological innovations where government should invest in and do not necessarily require large capital inputs and mechanized equipment is the new developments in medicine and animal nutrition through major scientific advances in modern agriculture. If these innovations are introduced in rural areas, livestock productions can greatly increase and change the lives of people in rural areas.
One other major hindering factor of rural development is that rural areas especially here in Zambia are completely cut off from the rest of the country. This is because roads to these remote places are completely impassable. This situation tends to be worse in the rainy season such that it is difficult for vehicles to go as far as Shan’gombo and Kaputa. The government should therefore come up with deliberate policies to connect these areas to the national grid. It should invest a lot in the rehabilitation of feeder roads. When there is proper road and communication network there would be a good flow of agriculture products and other commodities in and out of these areas. This would create markets for these small scale farmers as their products would find there way in urban areas. This would create income and a boom of activities such that in the long run it would have a spillover effect were other supporting industries would come up and these areas would now be in a position to attract skilled workers such as doctors, engineers and other graduates from higher learning institutions. When these skilled people have an incentive to work in these areas, they would use their expertise and contribute greatly to the development of rural areas. As earlier stated, it is very difficult for people in rural areas to access funds; therefore one affordable way to help these people in accessing these funds is through the provision of micro-credit facilities. This facility should specifically be targeted on women. This is because in most parts of the world including Zambia, poverty has a woman face. Women experience poverty more than men. When money is given to men, it seldom trickles down to the family. But women take far more seriously the responsibility of bringing up there children, and they bear the burden of this undertaking. It is believed that when a woman is empowered, a family is empowered. Thus the entrepreneurial skills of poor rural women must not be underestimated just because they are poor. The idea of this micro- financing should be to help the women to help themselves and provide the necessary guidance, leadership, capital and let the women themselves get on with their own work to pull themselves out of poverty. This idea is seen to be working in Bangladesh. Tharoor (2007) assets that Grameen Bank of Dr Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize started this programme and has seen women wisely invest their money for economically viable and environmentally sustainable income generating activities. These women have managed to repay their loans with almost 100 per cent repayment rate, and have become masters of there own destiny without the interference of their men.
In addition, there is need to address the problem of urban bias in terms of fairness in budgetary allocation by the government. Though the UNIP government tried to address this issue through the First National Development Plan and the Second National Development Plan which sought to reduce rural urban – bias gap by the extension of the social and economic infrastructure to the rural areas, there were no other supporting structures which would attract investment and help in complementing and sustaining the existing structures. This problem can be addressed by government embarking on electrification of rural areas. This will attract skilled people to settle in rural areas and will reduce migration of people to urban areas. Rural electrification will also stimulate rural economies such that investment of manufacturing industries which require the use of electricity will be a reality. With the opening of industries, more employment opportunities will be available for the locals. The government should also re–introduce the idea of setting up state owned companies in strategic rural areas like it was done in past were the government had set up the bicycle plant in Chipata, Mansa batteries, Pineapple production in Mwinilun’ga and Kawambwa tea in northern province. This would provide jobs for the locals and would see the emergence of other supporting sectors. It should also be pointed out that this in a way will help the local people to diversify. This is because rural households will construct an increasingly diverse portfolio of activities and move away from over dependence on subsistence farming. Government should partner with support groups such as donor agencies and NGOs to provide safe drinking water, invest in education and provide better health facilities in these areas to reduce on urban bias. It can be argued, however that policies are already in place to address these issues. However, it is the implementation which should be monitored. There should be seriousness in the way these plans are implemented. There should be a sense of priority. Strict institutional frameworks should be put in place to ensure that officials who are charged with the responsibility of implementing these plans do not engage in corrupt practices which would hinder developmental progress in these areas.
Lastly in the peasant system, land ownership is more or less equally distributed, and there is a communal tenure system, in which the land is communally owned. Despite this ownership, rural people are not completely free because land can easily be taken away from them in the name of investment. Albidon mine recently acquired land in southern province for mining purposes. This disadvantaged the local people living in the same area because they were driven away from an area they had been occupying for a long time. Government did not even protect them because to them the move was in line with the policy of attracting investment in Zambia. This should be avoided in future because it retards the improvements in people’s livelihood. Government should come up with land reforms which should aim at protecting the indignant people occupying such areas.
In conclusion, for development to be seen in a country there has to be uniformity in growth between the rural and urban sectors. Though government should play a major role in alleviating poverty, their efforts should be complemented by other interest groups and the rural people themselves. If all the mentioned factors are considered carefully, rural areas will be major contributors to the growth of national product of Zambia and other developing nations with similar developmental patterns.
It is believed that over two-thirds of the world’s poorest people are located in rural areas and engaged primarily in subsistence agriculture. Their basic concern is survival. Zambia is not an exception to this situation. Many people in rural parts of Zambia have been bypassed by whatever economic progress has been attained. Many people in these areas do not have enough food and other basic necessities as well as essential services such as health, transport and basic education. If development is to take place and be self-sustaining in every nation, it will have to include the rural areas in general and the agriculture sector in particular. It is for this reason that this paper is paying special attention to rural development. This will be done by first defining key concepts and looking at some of the factors which have led to the development trends in rural areas before finally looking at what can be done to improve and uplift the standards of the people living in rural areas.
imarily in subsistence agriculture. Their basic concern is survival. Zambia is not an exception to this situation. Many people in rural parts of Zambia have been bypassed by whatever economic progress has been attained. Many people in these areas do not have enough food and other basic necessities as well as essential services such as health, transport and basic education. If development is to take place and be self-sustaining in every nation, it will have to include the rural areas in general and the agriculture sector in particular. It is for this reason that this paper is paying special attention to rural development. This will be done by first defining key concepts and looking at some of the factors which have led to the development trends in rural areas before finally looking at what can be done to improve and uplift the standards of the people living in rural areas. Development in this case can be defined as the process of growing; changing and progressing, while rural describes places in the country side or things related to such places. Ellis (2000: 25) gives an explanation that the term rural development came into widespread usage in the mid 1970s, and is primarily associated with the empirical observation that the vast majority of the poor in developing countries were located in rural areas. Rural development is therefore not a theory of economic or social changes as such, nor even an explanation of how spatial patterns of poverty arise, rather, it is an acknowledgement that the majority of developing-country citizens that have incomes below the stated poverty line are resident in rural rather than urban areas, and it is also a call to action to this incidence of poverty. Rural development can therefore be defined as an organizing principle for anti-poverty policies in rural areas of low income countries.
Before analyzing the system of agriculture and rural development, we need to understand how the agricultural system of a developing nation is structured and look at some of the factors that have made development in rural areas lag behind that of the urban areas.
Before analyzing the system of agriculture and rural development, we need to understand how the agricultural system of a developing nation is structured and look at some of the factors that have made development in rural areas lag behind that of the urban areas.
On a classic peasant subsistence farm, most output is produced for family consumption (sometimes the surplus may be traded in local markets) and few staple foods such as maize, and vegetables (in the Zambian case) are the chief sources of food intake. Output and productivity are low, and only the simplest traditional methods and tools are used. Capital investment is minimal as land and labor are the principal factors of production. The peasant usually cultivates only as much land as his family can manage to without the need for hired labor. Peasant farmers experience a lot of uncertainties such as droughts, and only meet survival levels of output. They also tend to have rigid social institutions in which they are locked as they do not easily accept any form of change. The rural sector is characterized by high levels of poverty. Despite having most of the low-cost sources of potential advance such as abundant labor and vast land, these have been under utilized. On the other hand, the urban sector has most of the influence, organization and power. This means that the urban classes have been able to ‘win’ most of the rounds of the struggle with the rural areas; but in so doing they have made the development process needlessly slow and unfair. Most of Zambia’s budgetary allocation addresses urban areas’ needs and other related issues. This has largely affected the people in rural areas who largely depend on subsistence farming. 1n addition the proportion of skilled people who support the development process such as doctors, engineers and other graduates from higher learning institutions are not attracted to work in rural areas.
The other reason rural areas have been lagging in development is because of rural- urban drift. Due to the opening of mines especially on the Copperbelt during the colonial days many able bodied men shifted to urban areas leaving behind women, children and old people, thereby leaving rural areas without any people who could add value to any developmental prospects in their areas. This trend has continued even today as young men continue to leave rural areas in search of better living conditions in urban areas.
It has also been observed that people in urban areas take advantage of people in rural areas. For example an assessment of the way markets operate in rural Zambia suggests that commercial interests generally view accustomed rural people to be living off the land without much need for money, making their exploitation somehow justified. Take for instance the response given by a large –scale commodities trader in Zambia when asked the best way to buy soyabeans from small scale farmers, “I always buy early in the season when farmers are poorest and most willing to sell at the lowest price”. Such a strategy makes sense for the urban trader but does little to advance annual rural income which is below $ 200 in many parts of the nation (www.nswild.org/model-for-rural-development-in-zambia-28/c)
All the mentioned factors and other similar circumstances which have not been mentioned above have contributed greatly to the poor state of rural areas in Zambia and other parts of the world today. There is need to address these issues to help lift people in these areas from extreme poverty.
First and foremost, there is need to change the attitude of people in rural areas. There is need to sensitize them to diversify. People in rural parts of Zambia are known to depend only on one type of crop. For example those in Eastern province are well known to concentrate on groundnuts; Southern part is well known for cattle rearing while people in Luapula province are known to only be good in fishing. Diversification can help peasant farmers to remain busy throughout the year because some crops are only grown in particular seasons of the year. The other advantage of this process is that it encourages crop rotation thereby enriching the soil and increasing its productivity. Diversification should not only be limited to agriculture alone. They should engage in multiple activities and expand their income portfolios.
the need for hired labor. Peasant farmers experience a lot of uncertainties such as droughts, and only meet survival levels of output. They also tend to have rigid social institutions in which they are locked as they do not easily accept any form of change. The rural sector is characterized by high levels of poverty. Despite having most of the low-cost sources of potential advance such as abundant labor and vast land, these have been under utilized. On the other hand, the urban sector has most of the influence, organization and power. This means that the urban classes have been able to ‘win’ most of the rounds of the struggle with the rural areas; but in so doing they have made the development process needlessly slow and unfair. Most of Zambia’s budgetary allocation addresses urban areas’ needs and other related issues. This has largely affected the people in rural areas who largely depend on subsistence farming. 1n addition the proportion of skilled people who support the development process such as doctors, engineers and other graduates from higher learning institutions are not attracted to work in rural areas.The other reason rural areas have been lagging in development is because of rural- urban drift. Due to the opening of mines especially on the Copperbelt during the colonial days many able bodied men shifted to urban areas leaving behind women, children and old people, thereby leaving rural areas without any people who could add value to any developmental prospects in their areas. This trend has continued even today as young men continue to leave rural areas in search of better living conditions in urban areas.
It has also been observed that people in urban areas take advantage of people in rural areas. For example an assessment of the way markets operate in rural Zambia suggests that commercial interests generally view accustomed rural people to be living off the land without much need for money, making their exploitation somehow justified. Take for instance the response given by a large –scale commodities trader in Zambia when asked the best way to buy soyabeans from small scale farmers, “I always buy early in the season when farmers are poorest and most willing to sell at the lowest price”. Such a strategy makes sense for the urban trader but does little to advance annual rural income which is below $ 200 in many parts of the nation (www.nswild.org/model-for-rural-development-in-zambia-28/c)
All the mentioned factors and other similar circumstances which have not been mentioned above have contributed greatly to the poor state of rural areas in Zambia and other parts of the world today. There is need to address these issues to help lift people in these areas from extreme poverty.
First and foremost, there is need to change the attitude of people in rural areas. There is need to sensitize them to diversify. People in rural parts of Zambia are known to depend only on one type of crop. For example those in Eastern province are well known to concentrate on groundnuts; Southern part is well known for cattle rearing while people in Luapula province are known to only be good in fishing. Diversification can help peasant farmers to remain busy throughout the year because some crops are only grown in particular seasons of the year. The other advantage of this process is that it encourages crop rotation thereby enriching the soil and increasing its productivity. Diversification should not only be limited to agriculture alone. They should engage in multiple activities and expand their income portfolios.
Secondly, there is need for government and other interest groups to consult people in rural areas and find out what they really need. This is because rural people are capable, creative and committed actors of change. Rural people must be involved in policy making processes, in market change and trade designing. In addition, the local communities’ focus and empowerment are imperative in the execution of rural development and poverty reduction programmes. It is the people themselves who have to decide what they want to do, to change and improve their lives. They have to take full responsibility of there lives, design the means with which they can improve their living conditions and develop a vision of how their lives can change. That is; do what they can do, with what they have, where they are.
Quite often women in rural areas are excluded from extension and credit deliveries. But development planners and donor agency personnel can benefit from obtaining more information from both women and men in the rural areas before making judgments as to the kinds of development which are most desired. Since women in Zambia are the major food producers, development efforts must not exclude them from new technologies. On women participation Bardouille (1992:121) explains that a research was conducted to find out how rural women perceived development and whether they had benefited from development efforts they had helped in planning. The sample was drawn from rural women in selected provinces of Zambia. The rural women defined or perceived development in terms of improvements in farming, availability of educational and health facilities, transportation, etc. The women believed that development had taken place, although there was room for more improvement in the area.
Rural development can further be addressed through community based initiatives. This form of developmental approach is very important because it insures local participation. A good example of such an initiative is by a Japanese organization called JICA. JICA’s targets towards the reduction of poverty among small scale farmers in isolated regions includes the training of advisors to lead participatory development initiatives, the establishment of small-scale “micro-projects” for the community, and the introduction of sustainable farming technology. The aim is to help rural communities to achieve self-sufficiency. The development method used in these projects is designed to involve residents and communities (villages). Local people carry out all aspects of these projects, from planning to implementation, and also take responsibility for ongoing agricultural development. An example of a village located in an isolated region is Kapuka, which consists of 196 households. The only industry is farming, which yields annual incomes averaging only about $260 per household. In addition to food shortages, the community also faces shortages of drinking water in the dry season. With the assistance of advisors, JICA held a workshop at which all village residents discussed the steps that they needed to take to achieve sustainable development. External funding at the rate $100 per household has been provided for projects such has the establishment of a broiler poultry, construction of multipurpose facility for use as a meeting hall, elementary school and crop rotation and the establishment of communal scheme to grow maize in the dry season. The other things which have been done in the area include the introduction of oxen and ox-drawn plows, the construction of wells to provide drinking water, the purchase of sewing machines and finally the provision of training required for the various projects , (http://www.ruraldevelopment.org.zm/). This idea must be emulated by government and other organizations and should be spread to other rural p
arts of the country.One thing to be taken into consideration is that peasant farmers in rural areas do act rationally and are responsive to economic incentives and opportunities. Where innovation and change fail to occur, we should not assume that rural people are stupid, irrational, or conservative; instead, we should examine carefully the environment in which the small farmer operates to search for the particular institutional or commercial obstacles that may be blocking or frustrating constructive change. Todaro (2003:478) illustrates that if peasants sometimes appear to be unresponsive or hostile to proposed technical changes, it is probably because the risks are high, returns to the cultivator are low-for example, because of local custom or land tenure conditions, or because credit facilities and marketing outlets are inadequate and the necessary inputs – including knowledge –are missing. Technological innovation is also cardinal in every developmental process in that it can increase farm yields. This involves the introduction of mechanized agriculture to replace human labor. This can be in form of tractors and combine harvesters. The only problem is that this type of innovation is not suitable to the physical environment. Another problem is that a peasant rural farmer cannot afford to obtain a loan or use other sources to acquire these things because he does not know how to go about obtaining a loan and cannot easily attract funds from other sources. Furthermore potential lenders of such resources know that he has no capacity to pay back. Hence this innovation can be approached in a different way where government and other support groups are able to supply rural areas with hybrid seeds and chemical innovations such as pesticides fertilizers and insecticides. Advanced techniques of irrigation should be introduced together with crop rotation. The other technological innovations where government should invest in and do not necessarily require large capital inputs and mechanized equipment is the new developments in medicine and animal nutrition through major scientific advances in modern agriculture. If these innovations are introduced in rural areas, livestock productions can greatly increase and change the lives of people in rural areas.
One other major hindering factor of rural development is that rural areas especially here in Zambia are completely cut off from the rest of the country. This is because roads to these remote places are completely impassable. This situation tends to be worse in the rainy season such that it is difficult for vehicles to go as far as Shan’gombo and Kaputa. The government should therefore come up with deliberate policies to connect these areas to the national grid. It should invest a lot in the rehabilitation of feeder roads. When there is proper road and communication network there would be a good flow of agriculture products and other commodities in and out of these areas. This would create markets for these small scale farmers as their products would find there way in urban areas. This would create income and a boom of activities such that in the long run it would have a spillover effect were other supporting industries would come up and these areas would now be in a position to attract skilled workers such as doctors, engineers and other graduates from higher learning institutions. When these skilled people have an incentive to work in these areas, they would use their expertise and contribute greatly to the development of rural areas. As earlier stated, it is very difficult for people in rural areas to access funds; therefore one affordable way to help these people in accessing these funds is through the provision of micro-credit facilities. This facility should specifically be targeted on women. This is because in most parts of the world including Zambia, poverty has a woman face. Women experience poverty more than men. When money is given to men, it seldom trickles down to the family. But women take far more seriously the responsibility of bringing up there children, and they bear the burden of this undertaking. It is believed that when a woman is empowered, a family is empowered. Thus the entrepreneurial skills of poor rural women must not be underestimated just because they are poor. The idea of this micro- financing should be to help the women to help themselves and provide the necessary guidance, leadership, capital and let the women themselves get on with their own work to pull themselves out of poverty. This idea is seen to be working in Bangladesh. Tharoor (2007) assets that Grameen Bank of Dr Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize started this programme and has seen women wisely invest their money for economically viable and environmentally sustainable income generating activities. These women have managed to repay their loans with almost 100 per cent repayment rate, and have become masters of there own destiny without the interference of their men.
In addition, there is need to address the problem of urban bias in terms of fairness in budgetary allocation by the government. Though the UNIP government tried to address this issue through the First National Development Plan and the Second National Development Plan which sought to reduce rural urban – bias gap by the extension of the social and economic infrastructure to the rural areas, there were no other supporting structures which would attract investment and help in complementing and sustaining the existing structures. This problem can be addressed by government embarking on electrification of rural areas. This will attract skilled people to settle in rural areas and will reduce migration of people to urban areas. Rural electrification will also stimulate rural economies such that investment of manufacturing industries which require the use of electricity will be a reality. With the opening of industries, more employment opportunities will be available for the locals. The government should also re–introduce the idea of setting up state owned companies in strategic rural areas like it was done in past were the government had set up the bicycle plant in Chipata, Mansa batteries, Pineapple production in Mwinilun’ga and Kawambwa tea in northern province. This would provide jobs for the locals and would see the emergence of other supporting sectors. It should also be pointed out that this in a way will help the local people to diversify. This is because rural households will construct an increasingly diverse portfolio of activities and move away from over dependence on subsistence farming. Government should partner with support groups such as donor agencies and NGOs to provide safe drinking water, invest in education and provide better health facilities in these areas to reduce on urban bias. It can be argued, however that policies are already in place to address these issues. However, it is the implementation which should be monitored. There should be seriousness in the way these plans are implemented. There should be a sense of priority. Strict institutional frameworks should be put in place to ensure that officials who are charged with the responsibility of implementing these plans do not engage in corrupt practices which would hinder developmental progress in these areas.
Lastly in the peasant system, land ownership is more or less equally distributed, and there is a communal tenure system, in which the land is communally owned. Despite this ownership, rural people are not completely free because land can easily be taken away from them in the name of investment. Albidon mine recently acquired land in southern province for mining purposes. This disadvantaged the local people living in the same area because they were driven away from an area they had been occupying for a long time. Government did not even pro
tect them because to them the move was in line with the policy of attracting investment in Zambia. This should be avoided in future because it retards the improvements in people’s livelihood. Government should come up with land reforms which should aim at protecting the indignant people occupying such areas.In conclusion, for development to be seen in a country there has to be uniformity in growth between the rural and urban sectors. Though government should play a major role in alleviating poverty, their efforts should be complemented by other interest groups and the rural people themselves. If all the mentioned factors are considered carefully, rural areas will be major contributors to the growth of national product of Zambia and other developing nations with similar developmental patterns.
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