Overview

Agriculture is a small share of measured output but engages two-thirds of households. Agriculture, forestry and fishing generated K35.2 billion of value added in 2025, 4.4% of GDP, after growing 35.3% in real terms as the harvest recovered from drought¹. The World Bank, whose series still uses an earlier estimate for 2025, puts value added at US$1.19 billion². The 2022 census counted 2.69 million agricultural households, 65.9% of all households, and 55.3% of the population lived in rural areas³⁸. The Labour Force Survey, which excludes farming mainly for own consumption, counted 1.11 million people employed in agriculture in 2024, 28.0% of the employed⁹.

Maize is the leading crop and the focus of food policy. Maize accounted for 64.8% of the area planted to the crops covered by the 2025/26 Crop Forecast Survey other than cassava (own calculation), and small and medium-scale farms grow most of the maize⁴. The Crop Forecast Survey estimated 1.51 million tonnes in 2023/24, 53.7% less than a year earlier, and 4.94 million tonnes for 2025/26¹⁰⁴. The state shapes the market through the Farmer Input Support Programme, which targeted 1,024,434 farmers in each season from 2021/22 to 2024/25 and in 2026/27, and through Food Reserve Agency purchases, which reached 1.66 million tonnes in 2025¹¹¹²¹³. Soybeans, groundnuts, cassava, sugar cane, tobacco and livestock complete the farm economy.

Zambia is a net exporter of agri-food products, mainly within the region. On UN Comtrade data Zambia exported US$1.00 billion of agri-food products in 2024 and imported US$907 million, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo taking 43% of exports and South Africa supplying 43% of imports⁷. Tobacco, beverages, animal feed and sugar were the largest export groups, and vegetable oils, fish and cereals the largest imports⁷.

Farm credit is concentrated in large farms. Banks held K13.46 billion of loans to agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting in August 2026, about US$708 million and 12.4% of all bank loans⁶⁵. Small and emergent farmers held about 14% of agricultural loans of banks and non-bank lenders at the end of 2025¹⁴. Non-performing loans to agriculture fell from 30.4% in 2020 to 3.0% in 2025, and the Bank of Zambia cut its policy rate to 10.75% on 30 September 2026¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷.

Drought is a major climate risk. Rainfall from October 2023 to April 2024 was about a fifth below the 1991–2020 average, and the President declared a national disaster on 29 February 2024, with 84 of 116 districts affected¹⁸¹⁹. The drought also reduced hydropower, and national electricity generation fell by 31% in 2024²⁰.