Addressing seasonal hunger and rural poverty in Zambia – Testing scalable solutions
Since farmers harvest crops a few times a year, many households struggle to save their cash and maintain consumption between harvests
Abstract
Since farmers harvest crops (and therefore earn income) just a few times a year, many agricultural households struggle to save their cash and maintain their consumption in the months between harvests. For this reason, the period before harvest is often termed the “hungry season”. Previous research has shown that offering well timed, seasonal credit to farmers can help boost agricultural productivity and smooth consumption, but few programs designed to provide seasonal credit to small-scale farmers exist in low-income settings. We work with a private sector partner to test a scale up of seasonal loans. The program increased farmer engagement with the company and had high take up, but led to high levels of default, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to its discontinuation.
This research is part of the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low Income Countries programme
Citation
Jack, K., Fink, G. and Masiye, F. (2022). “Addressing seasonal hunger and rural poverty in Zambia – Testing scalable solutions”. G2LM LIC Policy Brief No. 52.
Links
Addressing seasonal hunger and rural poverty in Zambia – Testing scalable solutions