TRENDS AND IMPACTS OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRY AGRICULTURE

to Mpongwe and many other rural districts,
Mazabuka District (where Kascol is located)
was much better off. Mazabuka’s location
along the main (and the country’s first) railway
line, attracted missionaries and white settlers
(mainly as commercial farmers) and, as such, the
Kascol project catchment area benefited from
earlier investments in human resource projects
undertaken by the government, missionaries and
commercial establishments (e.g. the Zambia Sugar
Company). By 1980, a number of schools existed
in the project catchment area at both primary and
secondary levels. These included Mazabuka Basic
School, Saint Columbus Primary School, Kaonga
Primary School, Saint Edmonds Secondary School,
and Mazabuka Girls High School. Vocational
training centres, however, were very few, and
perhaps only the Zambia Institute for Animal
Husbandry was found within the project area. A
farmer-training centre that catered to the needs
of the entire Mazabuka district existed about 60
km away, but the distance meant that it was of
limited use to the farmers in the project area.
The vast majority of the rural population in
the project catchment areas probably made a
living through subsistence farming and herding.
To date, about 90 percent of Zambians who
live in rural areas derive their livelihoods from
agriculture (CSO, 2003). Only 6.3 percent of the
rural population is in paid employment, implying
that 93.7 percent are most likely engaged in
independent agricultural activities, whether for
subsistence or for commercial production.
While formal employment opportunities
existed for work in government offices (both
central and local) and in parastatals that were
being established by the government in the first
decade after independence, few rural people,
who made up the majority of residents in the
catchment areas of the two case studies, could
get such jobs, due to lack of education and
training. Most, therefore, could only work as
‘labourers’, a term used to refer to unskilled
labour in Zambia. In Mazabuka District, where
Kascol is located, some farming enterprises,
notably the Zambia Sugar Company, had just
been established. These enterprises provided
whatever type of employment the local residents
could pick up (cane cutting, office cleaning, etc.).
Part 4: Business models for agricultural
investment: Impacts on local development
FIGURE 2
Wage employment in Zambia, 1972–1980
400 000
390 000
380 000
370 000
360 000
350 000
1972
1974
Source: Data from CSO, 1986
1976
1978
Number Employed
1980
Management and other jobs requiring technical
expertise were mostly in the hands of expatriates.
Mpongwe District had even fewer, if any,
opportunities for wage employment.
The employment situation was particularly
bad in the second decade after independence,
because although Zambia recorded a growth in
wage employment due to growth in the economy
in the first ten years after independence (1964–
1973), from the mid-1970s growth in wage
employment grew less than growth in the labour
force (CSO, 1986) (see Figure 2). This period
marked the beginning of Zambia’s economic
decline, largely due to the decline in copper prices
on the world market, increased oil prices and
policy mishaps.
4.2. Direct livelihood contributions
According to Scoones (1998), “a livelihood
comprises the capabilities, assets (including
both material and social resources) and activities
required for a means of living”. The same author
adds further that “a livelihood is sustainable
when it can cope with and recover from
stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its
capabilities and assets, while not undermining
the natural resource base”. The terms
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ZAMBIA