– Rural people must be empowered to build better livelihoods
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema’s Grow Zambia Agenda has set ambitious targets for the country: 10 million tonnes of maize, 10,000 megawatts of electricity, five million tourists, three million tonnes each of copper and soya beans, one million tonnes each of wheat and sugar, and a US$1 billion beef industry.
These are big numbers, and they should be. But when I look at them from Namwala, I keep returning to a simple question: where will this growth actually come from?
A large part of the answer must be rural Zambia.
According to the Zambia Statistics Agency’s 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey, about 60 percent of Zambians live in rural areas. Agriculture, forestry and fishing account for 37.2 percent of employment, while rural Zambia was home to 79.1 percent of the country’s poor population. These figures tell us where some of our greatest challenges lie, but they also point to a vast amount of productive potential that remains underdeveloped.
In the Nalubamba chiefdom, this is a conversation we have already been having through our development planning. During the 2026 Ikubi Lya Bana Munyati traditional ceremony and its associated development activities, I spoke about the need to connect the preservation of our culture with the building of productive, resilient and economically stronger communities. Culture gives us identity and cohesion, but our people must also be empowered to build better livelihoods.
The Grow Zambia Agenda gives that conversation a broader national context. If we want to increase production and create wealth, rural communities cannot continue to be seen primarily as places where development programmes are delivered. They must become places where wealth is produced.
The proposed US$1 billion beef export target is a good example.
I come from a cattle community.
In Namwala, we know that an animal is more than beef waiting to enter an abattoir. A herd can be a family’s savings account, insurance policy and source of draught power. Cattle pay school fees, cover medical expenses and help families survive poor harvests.
The 2024 Integrated Agricultural Survey recorded 1,747,550 cattle in Southern Province, the highest number in the country. If Zambia is to build a billion-dollar beef industry, we should work backwards from that target until we reach the cattle owner in the village. A large cattle population is an important foundation,
but numbers alone will not create a billion-dollar industry. Productivity, animal health, quality, processing and reliable markets will determine whether that potential is converted into value.
For that farmer, the issues are practical: healthy animals, reliable veterinary services, adequate water and grazing, access to fodder during difficult months, knowledge on livestock, and access to competitive markets. And as the industry grows, how much of that additional value will reach the farmer?
Those are Grow Zambia questions.
Recent outbreaks of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and foot-and-mouth disease in parts of Southern Province demonstrate why animal health cannot be separated from economics. When livestock movement is restricted or markets close, the impact is felt immediately by households that depend on cattle for income. Veterinary extension services, disease surveillance and vaccination programmes should therefore be viewed as essential infrastructure for a productive livestock economy.
The same practical thinking is needed when it comes to climate.
For rural families, climate change is not an abstract discussion. It is felt when a borehole yields less water, grazing land disappears earlier, crops fail or cattle must travel farther to find water.when a borehole yields less water, grazing land disappears earlier, crops fail or cattle must travel farther to find water. Zambia’s 2026/27 seasonal outlook has once again brought drought risk in the south into focus, with a later start to the rainy season and an increased likelihood of belownormal rainfall in southern areas.
For communities that rely heavily on rain-fed agriculture and livestock, preparedness cannot begin after the rains have already failed.
We learned during the recent drought how quickly a rainfall problem can become an electricity problem, a food problem and an economic problem. Water harvesting, irrigation, solar energy, agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, sustainable grazing, fodder production and land restoration are therefore investments in production just as much as they are responses to climate change.
This is particularly important in livestock areas. If we can harvest and conserve fodder when grass is abundant, manage grazing more effectively and reduce destructive fires, we can protect cattle during difficult periods instead of waiting for drought to force distress sales.
The Grow Zambia target of 10,000 megawatts of electricity must also be considered from the village upward.
Rural electricity access remains very agricultural and environmental monitoring. Innovation should not be something rural Zambia waits to receive from Lusaka.
Traditional leadership also has responsibilities in this regard.
Government has statutory responsibilities that traditional institutions must respect. Chiefs should not attempt to become a parallel government. However, traditional leadership has community structures that reach villages and households, and those structures can help bridge the last-mile gap that so often weakens otherwise sound programmes.
A chiefdom can help mobilise farmers for government-led vaccination programmes, support early community reporting of disease outbreaks, encourage responsible grazing and environmental protection, convene farmers and technical officers, and help communities access verified information. We can also bring government, researchers, businesses and development partners into direct conversation with rural communities.
But we should also expect more from ourselves as traditional leaders.
We need to become more comfortable with evidence. How many animals were vaccinated? Did mortality rates decline? Did the trees survive? Did household production increase? Did the training create livelihoods, or did it simply produce another certificate?
In the Nalubamba chiefdom, we are learning these lessons through our strategic development plan and our work in One Health, poultry disease control, environmental restoration, livestock development and community mobilisation. We do not have all the answers. Some approaches will work better than others. What matters is that communities participate in identifying problems, testing solutions and measuring results.
We must also reconsider the project mentality that has shaped much of rural development.
Projects and development partners have made important contributions and will continue to do so. The problem arises when the activity itself becomes the achievement. A vaccination programme should leave behind healthier poultry and a stronger poultry economy. A water investment should improve resilience and, where appropriate, support productive activity. Training should lead to livelihoods and businesses. Livestock programmes should result in healthier animals, higher productivity and better household incomes.
The real test is what remains after a project has ended. That also requires us to think more seriously about markets, local value addition and ownership. A rural producer who increases output but lacks a dependable buyer, storage facilities, processing capacity or bargaining power may still remain poor. As value chains develop, how much of the additional value remains with the farmer who raises the animal? Production and markets must grow together.
When this happens across farms, herds, enterprises and communities, rural development ceases to be solely a social objective and becomes an integral part of the country’s growth strategy.
There are thousands of villages across Zambia. If livestock mortality declines, farmers improve yields, households process more of what they produce, women build viable enterprises, young people establish businesses, electricity powers production and farmers reach better markets, the cumulative impact will be substantial.
That is where the promise of Grow Zambia becomes particularly significant.
National growth is often discussed in terms of mines, large-scale investments, export earnings and major infrastructure. All of these matter. But the cattle owner, the smallholder farmer, the woman running a rural enterprise and the young person trying to build a business matter just as much.
They are not standing outside the economy waiting for development to arrive. They are already part of the economy we need to grow.
If national ambitions can be connected to what happens in the village, to healthier cattle, reliable water, productive energy, better markets, resilient landscapes and viable rural businesses, then growth can reach much deeper into the country.
The author is Chief Nalubamba of the Mbeza Royal Establishment in Namwala District.
