3 research outputs found
Mega-environment identification for soybean [glycline maxl. merrill] in Zambia
No full textMaster of Science in Plant Breeding and Seed SystemsSoybean is one of the most important cultivated crops in the world with about 6% of the
world’s arable land dedicated to its production. Compared to other major food crops, soybean
experienced the highest percentage of yearly increases in production area over the period
1968 to 2013 from 29 million ha in 1968 to 102 million ha in 2008. Despite these high
increases in the global perspective, Zambia is currently producing less than 0.01% of the
global production, producing 261,063 metric tonnes in 2013. This is despite the fact that
Zambia has vast arable land ideal for crop cultivation including soybean. Efforts are being
made to improve the production trends in the country through many avenues among which is
the introduction of new varieties. This effort has been concentrated in agro ecological region
II of Zambia. There are no region specific adapted soybean varieties in Zambia. The current
study was carried out in the 2013/2014 agricultural season to define soybean mega
environments in two (2) agro ecological regions of Zambia. The study had 15 soybean
varieties grown at four (4) locations in the two agro ecological regions of Zambia under
rainfed conditions. The sites included GART, Kabwe, Msekera and Masumba. The trials
were laid out in a Randomised Complete Block Design with four replications. The parameters
which were collected were days to 50% flowering, plant height at harvest, pods per plant,
seed size and computation of yield. Data analysis was done using Genstat version 16 and
GGE biplot. The results showed the existence of three mega environments namely
Kabwe/Msekera, GART and Masumba. Kabwe was found to be the most ideal environment
for soybean production with Masumba being the worst. Kabwe was also the most
descriminating location for testing of genotypes. Masumba was descriminating but not ideal.
The genotypes yield mean score was 1239 Kg/ha and TGX 1988-22F was the highest
yielding genotype with mean of 1517 kg/ha and the lowest was TGX 1835-10E with 418
kg/ha. In terms of variability in accordance to GGE biplot, Safari was the most variable and
the most stable was TGX 1988-22F. Therefore, the study concluded that the best genotype for
general adaptability was the variety TGX 1988-22F which was ideal across all the locations
as it was high yielding and stable. Six genotypes had yield which was below the mean
performance of the genotypes across all the locations; these were Lukanga, TGX 1835-10E,
TGX 1830-20E, TGX 1988-18F, TGX 1987-23F and TGX 1987-11F. The mega environment
Kabwe/Msekera had TGX 1988-22F as the winning genotype, GART had safari and
Masumba had Magoye
The Social, Economic and Health Impacts of Urban Agriculture in Zambia
No full textUrban agriculture practices are on the rise among the Southern Africa populations bringing with it positive and negative impacts. Nevertheless, the impacts of urban agriculture over Southern Africa cannot be equated to an individual country due to varying characteristics of each nation such as: national policies, geographic location, context of urban agriculture and the socio-economic and political conditions of the area. As a result, this paper, focusses on one nation only, in particular, Zambia. Agriculture in Zambia is vital for economic growth and poverty reduction, mostly focusing on rural areas rather than urban locations. Therefore, there is not sufficient knowledge on the impacts that urban agriculture brings to its urban populations. In this regard, this paper investigates the benefits of urban agriculture in Zambia, with a specific focus on the social, health and economic impacts on the Zambian urban population
The Politics of the Idea of Partnership: From contemporary aid policy to local health governance in practice in Zambia
No full textThis thesis explores the idea of partnership in contemporary aid policy and practice. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary body of literature that is broadly ‘constructivist’ in orientation, and using the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the health Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) and the health sector in Zambia as case studies, the research uniquely explores how (and why) the idea of partnership is a pervasive feature in aid policy, and how this relates to and shapes local practice, including the practice of politics that this enjoins.
Drawing on textual analysis of policy documents and on qualitative field research conducted in Zambia between November 2008 and July 2009, the thesis provides a number of important and novel insights. Firstly, it shows how the idea of partnership began its contemporary life in the socio-political relations of aid institutions and in the context of an aid crisis in the 1990s. Secondly, it shows how the idea travelled ideationally and geographically, through an elite network of aid agency actors (cf. Mosse, 2007), eventually becoming an expected and symbolic motif of aid policy. Thirdly, the thesis suggests why partnership remains a pervasive policy idea; featuring in SWAp and Global Fund policy because it symbolically conceals the existence of different perspectives about the right relations of health and developmental governance. Fourthly, and at the same time, the thesis shows how partnership is dominantly constructed in aid policy in a depoliticised way – as a technical and economic way to organise action – due to the prevailing power of donor governments and aid agencies in the socio-political processes that produce aid policy and the context of inequality in which aid is governed. Finally, the thesis shows how the depoliticisation of policy is ‘unravelled’ in the health sector in Zambia as partnership is translated, in and through the politics of collaboration, contestation, and compromise (Mosse, 2007, p.2, 2005a p.645; Rossi, 2006; Bending and Rosendo, 2006). This shapes, contorts and constrains local health governance in diverse and unexpected ways
