Farmers in Eastern Province grow local maize for their own consumption and sell hybrid maize. This is because local maize can be processed at home, while the hybrid maize varieties do not store as well and require milling. As a result, farmers tend to devote more labor to local maize than to hybrid maize. Moreover, hybrid maize is often planted after the local maize, when the optimum planting time is past, and this may contribute to lower-than-expected yields. Bottlenecks in availability and distribution of improved seeds and fertilizers also cause lower yields.

In the mid-1980s, the government of Zambia, confronted with the need for structural adjustment and a way to feed its expanding urban population, considered the effects of reducing public control of agricultural prices and markets for inputs and outputs. It felt that subsidy and pricing policies encouraged expansion of maize area into marginal areas and discouraged growth in yields through adoption of new technology. Eastern Province, which has excellent growing conditions for maize but poor infrastructure, is located far from urban centers. Increasing agricultural productivity through adoption of new technology seemed essential for its future economic growth, but, without subsidies or improved infrastructure, what would be the incentive for planting hybrid maize?

However, the report finds that farms of 2-3 hectares produce hybrid maize most efficiently, and therefore adoption of the hybrid has a positive effect on the welfare of those households. On farms with more than 4 hectares of hybrid maize, the increments to income from hybrid maize become negative; the decision to keep growing hybrids on larger farms appears to be related to subsidized inputs and an increasingly skewed distribution of intrahousehold income. Because household decisions affecting production and consumption are likely to be made simultaneously, with each affecting the other, the study uses a variable that is not a predictor of adoption behavior--household consumption expenditure as a proxy for income--to derive income effects. Household food consumption increases and child nutrition improves on smaller farms when they adopt hybrid maize, but it actually decreases on larger farms with adoption (Figure 1).

According to the report, in households headed by females, the overall rate of adoption of hybrid maize (22 percent) was lower than that in households headed by males (34 percent). The report finds that the adoption rate was lower on female-headed farms of less than 3 hectares, while the share of female-headed households over 3 hectares using hybrid maize was relatively higher than the comparable proportion of larger farms headed by men. For example, on farms of 1-2 hectares, households headed by females that adopted hybrid maize amounted to only 2 percent of the total number of farms, compared with 23 percent of the total for adopting households headed by males (Figure 3).

In examining household food intake and diet diversity, the report finds that adoption of hybrid maize improved food consumption of the smaller farm households, whereas those with larger farms actually consumed fewer calories than similar households that had not adopted the hybrids (Figure 4). As in many poor rural areas where labor is in short supply, allocation of food and income were closely related. If adequate food to maintain energy levels is unavailable during seasons when the demand for labor is high, farmers may not be able to work hard enough to efficiently produce the crop, thus reducing subsequent income. Measures to improve food consumption are therefore likely to be as effective as measures to improve income in making sustainable changes in welfare.

But policies to encourage use of higher-yielding maize varieties as a food crop may be even more important. Policies that help farmers to replace local maize with hybrids in their diets and their food security strategies, thus giving hybrid maize priority in allocation of labor and other resources, will be instrumental in ensuring that the hybrids reach their full potential.

Policies to provide equal access to credit and inputs for women farmers are also important because increasing women's income is shown to be the most effective way to improve children's nutrition, and women's role in farm management has been crucial for efficient farm operation in Zambia. Because women are heavily involved in production of local maize for home consumption, they should be trained in how to grow, store, and process hybrid maize, so that they have an option in choosing the best strategy for meeting household food needs. Improvements in the seed and fertilizer distribution systems, the credit and extension systems, and rural infrastructure such as roads are important for all farmers--men and women, large and small farms.

With a liberalized market, the emphasis should be turned toward innovative extension services directed to both male and female smallholders. The finding that a bigger share of women than men who headed larger farms adopted hybrid maize implies that women are not too risk-averse to adopt new technology, provided they have the opportunity to acquire the requisite credit and inputs.

In the past, most of the agricultural development policies were geared toward the larger farmers, leading to inefficient expansion of area sown in hybrid maize on larger farms. Research to determine why hybrid maize use was inefficient on larger farms is needed. Since high-yielding maize varieties ideal for small farms have now been developed, their use should be promoted.

Government incentives for investing in simple infrastructure such as improved on-farm storage facilities and hammermills will encourage increased use of hybrid maize for home consumption. Removal of price policies that in the past prevented seasonal price changes will also increase on-farm storage. And removal of input subsidies, although it will increase the cost of production, should discourage growing of hybrid maize on marginal lands, thus increasing yields per hectare. Finally, policies that augment food availability in seasons of scarcity will contribute to improved productivity and household income gains by increasing the energy level of farm workers.