UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:

Affiliation:	- Non-governmental organization - Farmers

Name of Focal Point:	Sofia Widforss

Initiative Title:	Organic producers and processors of Zambia

Internet links:	http://www.africanfarmdiversity.net/Documents/OPPAZ_final.pdf

Scope:	National: - Zambia

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: 1999 End:

Lead Institution:	Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ)

Stakeholders/Partners:	UK Darwin Initiative for the survival of species, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), German ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and German Agency for Technical Cooperation+, Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products, Zambia Natural Farmers Union, Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART), SADC Plant Genetic Resource Centre (SPGRC), national Plant Genetic Resource Centre (NPGRC) OPPAZ-GART extension program (funded by Netherlands Embassy) Zambia Export Growers Association (ZEGA) Training Trust (Natural Resources Development College/NRDC, Lusaka) and GART (Chisamba). ASNAPP for Southern Africa program is bonded by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and works alongside OPPAZ.

Relevent issues:	- Food security and sustainable agriculture - Diversifying agricultural production systems - Access to financing, investments or markets - Capacity building - Integrating rural development strategies into broader development strategies - Empowerment of local rural communities - Agriculture - Others - Organic coffee production

Objectives/Challenges:

Objectives: To evaluate what kinds of support to on-farm conservation that are the most effective, and what their pre-conditions for success are for grass-roots development workers in e.g. community based organizations and NGOs.
OPPAZ provides production, marketing, technical advice, development of formal and informal working partnerships with other agencies and NGOs.
They aim at supporting a diversification, to enable viable markets to develop for certified and non-certified organic produce in-country and externally, and expand the already established export market for certified products.
Encourage small-scale, rural production and processing of agricultural products for the socio-economic benefits these activities provide.
Promote and develop sustainable methods of agricultural production.

Challenges: The members of OPPAZ are dominantly smallholder growers.
Zambia is ranked among the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) with manifold socio-economic, scientific and technological shortfalls.
Limited resources in terms of staff, funding and infrastructure.
Organizing extension for certification and collection of organic products (often in small quantities over long distances with poor roads and infrastructure), among other issues, remain a challenge.
Furthermore, European Union (EU) regulations for accepting organically-certified products in the European market are, usually, lengthy procedures.

Lessons Learned:

Crucial is the provision of a technical advisory service to members on organic and specialized crop production, improved processing and storage to ensure standards.
Market research and trials for new crops and innovative organic production techniques should be supported.

Policy Options:

OPPAZ needs to develop a national body of organic producers and exporters, to coordinate production and marketing, training and extension, organic certification and provision of advisory service to the full spectrum of the Zambian farming sector.
Critical to this expansion is the provision of a technical advisory service to members: OPPAZ must offer information, support and technical advice to farmers on organic and specialized crop production, processing and storage to ensure standards, assess and assist applications for accreditation and supervise training of extensionists.
It should support market research and trials for new crops and innovative organic production techniques.
OPPAZ is therefore designed to address 4 critical requirements for the expansion of organic production in Zambia. These are as follows:
• The need to develop in-country capacity for technical advise, organic certification and supervision. Also for co-ordinating the industry.
• The need to provide the industry with the information it requires to encourage
investment through practical research on the organic production of field crops suited to small scale farmers and specialised crops suited to larger producers.
• The need to train, equip and mobilise a small and dedicated extension service that can provide detailed and accurate information and training services to producers generated from local research and accumulated experience
• The need to support mutually beneficial relationships between the organic producers and association within Zambia in order to gain economies of scale, the statutory standards and the necessary levels of quality.
• The need to establish a marketing support, and internet facility where exporters can advertise their organic products to buyers world-wide.