[{"bbox": [111, 77, 1147, 185], "category": "Text", "text": "encroachment, displacement of people and allocation of land are yet to be fully addressed. GRZ recognises the importance of natural resources as capital assets for the wealth and the sustainable development of the country. Sectoral natural resources policies support community based natural resources management (CBNRM) and benefit-sharing for local communities; however, these are not effectively in place."}, {"bbox": [111, 196, 230, 222], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Agriculture"}, {"bbox": [111, 222, 1147, 437], "category": "Text", "text": "The Zambian agricultural production comprises crops such as maize, sorghum, millet, and cassava. Exports are driven by sugar, soybeans, coffee, groundnuts, rice, and cotton as well as horticultural produces. Smallholder farmers produce 85% of the food crops. The agriculture sector is characterised by low productivity, limited mechanisation and is largely rainfall dependent. The total budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector for 2022 increased to ZMW 8 067 billion, compared to ZMW 7 992 billion in the 2021 budget³¹. The current farmers input supply package (FISP) falls short on effective targeting and equitable treatment of beneficiaries³². GRZ's oversized commitments of resources to FISP and the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) severely limit the government's capacity to invest in growth and jobs."}, {"bbox": [111, 446, 665, 474], "category": "Text", "text": "The main challenges to ensure sustainable food systems are:"}, {"bbox": [111, 484, 660, 513], "category": "List-item", "text": "1) Low participation of the productive age group (youths)."}, {"bbox": [111, 513, 450, 540], "category": "List-item", "text": "2) High rural poverty levels (76%)."}, {"bbox": [111, 540, 815, 566], "category": "List-item", "text": "3) Low agriculture production diversification due to maize-centric policies."}, {"bbox": [111, 566, 774, 592], "category": "List-item", "text": "4) Malnutrition remains a problem with 35% of children being stunted."}, {"bbox": [111, 592, 1147, 646], "category": "List-item", "text": "5) Deforestation is driven by agricultural land expansion, charcoal production and timber extraction, threatening biodiversity and compromising the country's climate change adaptation and mitigation potential³³."}, {"bbox": [111, 657, 208, 682], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Nutrition"}, {"bbox": [111, 683, 1147, 898], "category": "Text", "text": "Despite progress over the last years, supported by the largest multi-sectoral and multi-donor and multi-agency programme in Zambia, “First 1000 Most Critical Days Programme (MCDP) II (Scaling up Nutrition – Phase II (SUN II Programme)³⁴”, chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies remain widespread. Currently 53% of households would not be able to afford nutritious diets. Given the high rates of non-affordability, households will prioritise meeting basic food needs, over meeting micronutrient needs, to prevent hunger. Most households live at least partly from agriculture. Therefore, diversifying homestead, smallholder and commercial agricultural production with nutritious crops, small livestock and fish farming, in a more integrated approach, would improve diversity and hence quality of nutrient intake and incomes³⁵."}, {"bbox": [111, 909, 408, 936], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Water resources management"}, {"bbox": [111, 936, 1147, 1175], "category": "Text", "text": "Water accounts for 1% of the country surface area. Climate change is projected to reduce water availability by about 13% by 2100³⁶. The vulnerability of catchment areas and watersheds has increased, due to frequent and extreme climate events and the cumulative demands of a rapidly growing population for agriculture irrigation, hydropower and household use. These factors have contributed to catchment degradation, with negative impacts on the resilience of ecosystems and access to water for local economic activities. Lack of statutory instruments in water resources management have resulted in weak structures for systematic monitoring of water abstraction. Further, local overuse of resources, such as for large scale irrigation by commercial farmers, has caused conflicts among water users. The recent National Water Resource Strategy and Plan (March 2022) aims to achieve a more equitable and sustainable utilization of water resources."}, {"bbox": [111, 1186, 330, 1211], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Forest and woodlands"}, {"bbox": [111, 1212, 1147, 1453], "category": "Text", "text": "The National Forestry Policy (2015), the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) strategy (2015) and the National Investment Plan for REDD (2018 – 2022) promote sustainable forest management. Likewise, the role of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities in the mitigation of climate change has long been recognised, including in Zambia. 60% of rural households depend on forests. Forest goods contribute approximately 20% to rural household incomes. Forests and woodlands provide 80% of energy needs in the form of firewood and charcoal. Zambia has still extensive forest cover, estimated at 44.8 million ha, representing 61% of the country's land surface area³⁷. However, human activities significantly reduce forest cover at an annual rate estimated at about 276 000 ha per year³⁸. As a result, the ecosystem services of forests and woodlands, including the maintenance of soil quality, control of erosion,"}, {"bbox": [100, 1494, 468, 1517], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³¹ IAPRI, Agricultural Status Report, 2021."}, {"bbox": [100, 1516, 209, 1536], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³² 8NDP"}, {"bbox": [100, 1537, 614, 1559], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³³ Rapid Food Systems Assessment – EU-FAO-CIRAD (2021)"}, {"bbox": [100, 1559, 922, 1581], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁴ MCDP II - supports the scale up of package of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions."}, {"bbox": [100, 1581, 574, 1603], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁵ Zambia Fill the Nutrient Gap Assessment, WFP (2021)"}, {"bbox": [100, 1603, 1016, 1625], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁶ Zambia's Third National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2020)"}, {"bbox": [100, 1625, 472, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁷ FAO Forest Resource Assessment (2020)"}, {"bbox": [100, 1647, 318, 1667], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁸ Zambia NDC (2021)"}, {"bbox": [1061, 1668, 1158, 1691], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 26"}]