Donor aid models don’t determine food security in Zambia, but local farming practices do - The Conversation

Donor aid models don’t determine food security in Zambia, but local farming practices do. Traditional western donors, such as the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), have promoted climate-smart agricultural systems such as conservation agriculture, working through non-governmental organisations. As food systems and development researchers at the University of Zambia, we set out to examine whether the origin of aid matters to the outcome. Does it influence whether a rural family has enough food to eat, or do local socio-ecological realities and farming practices matter more? About 70% of the population relies on agriculture for its livelihoods, income and household food security. We aimed to disentangle the relative impacts of donor affiliation (Norwegian versus Chinese aid) and farming systems (conservation agriculture versus conventional farming) on household food security. We started studying the projects in 2014, as part of a project examining donor aid effectiveness in Zambia and Malawi, and continued engaging with the question over the years.