Promising practices: Improving food security

The Promotion of Rural Food Security Programme (PRFSP) was designed by SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund) with four Zambian partners with a focus on improving food security and household incomes for small-scale farmers  in Zambia’s Lusaka, southern and western provinces.

The PRFSP addressed food insecurities through a range of supportive and sustainable agricultural activities. The programme emphasised sustainable farming practices such as composting, use of animal manure, use of green manures, minimal tillage, crop diversification and rotation, use of open pollinated varieties (OPV) seeds and latterly agro-forestry. The programme advocated sustainable practices over the unsustainable and damaging use of inorganic fertilisers, pesticides and destructive practices such as the indiscriminate burning of crop residues.

This report explores areas of best practice evidenced in the PRFSP. The learning points also form the foundation of the PRFSP’s follow-onproject, the Kulima Programme.