The Political Economy of Climate Smart Agriculture: Implications for Zambian Smallholder Farmers

The ramifications of climate change on food security and the agricultural sector's role in greenhouse gas emissions have renewed interest in global agri-food systems. Climatesmart agriculture (CSA) is a policy-based paradigm to facilitate the transformation of agricultural systems, aiming to enhance productivity, alleviate global poverty and hunger, and tackle the challenges associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation. Within this framework, CSA is regarded as a triple-win solution with the potential to transform smallholder farming systems. Critics contend that existing technologies are repackaged as 'climate-smart' to align with climate change policy goals and attract investments, raising concerns about the compatibility of CSA with smallholder farming systems. This thesis investigates how power dynamics, knowledge and interests have influenced the development of CSA policy in Zambia and its effects on smallholders' livelihoods. It draws on the theory of political economy, the policy processes framework (Keeley & Scoones, 1999) and the theory of epistemic communities. The thesis argues that CSA has failed to catalyse greater alignment between climate change and agricultural policies as anticipated or generate substantial climate finance for CSA interventions. Under the auspices of agrarian modernisation narratives, CSA policy is being used to fuel the expansion of neo-liberal market policies into sub-Saharan Africa. The Zambian government has adopted a minimal intervention approach to scaling up CSA, relying on internationally funded project-based interventions, leading to an ad hoc approach to disseminating CSA. The current institutional power structures supporting the scaling up of CSA have yet to effectively address the underlying socioeconomic challenges Zambian smallholders face beyond a superficial level. The primary beneficiaries are the commercial and emergent farmer sectors. CSA has become part of the Zambian government’s strategy to engage the smallholder sector in private sector-led commercialisation, thus validating critics' claims that CSA is a corporate-driven intervention to link smallholders into global markets. The findings indicate that CSA policies have had a negligible effect on the adoption rates of CSA practices in Zambia. Furthermore, the prevailing commercial agenda associated with CSA appears to exacerbate the inequalities between smallholders and commercial farmers, primarily due to smallholders' limited access to the essential infrastructure and services necessary for maintaining sustainable livelihoods. This thesis proposes that CSA policies might more effectively address the socio-political issues of inequality, power imbalances, and social injustices faced by smallholders if they include elements of social justice. This approach would provide a greater opportunity to place smallholders at the centre of smallholder-focused CSA policies and programme implementation. In Zambia, at the local level, this could be achieved through the decentralisation of governance and the allocation of resources and infrastructure via local government departments, which are best positioned to ensure the fair and socially just delivery of interventions.