Zambia is spearheading a transformative approach to climate resilience and sustainable food systems by integrating behavioural science into its agricultural extension services. This pioneering initiative, a collaborative effort between the Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in Zambia (SIFAZ) and the FACE-NDC projects, is successfully driving the widespread adoption of climate-smart technologies and sustainable intensification practices among smallholder farmers nationwide. The new methodology, which fuses traditional climate education with deep behaviour insights and community-led learning, was recently showcased at the 19th FAO Subregional Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) Meeting for Southern Africa, positioning Zambia at the forefront of innovative farmer engagement and climate action in the region.
Despite growing farmer awareness of sustainable practices, the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has faced limitations due to persistent social, cultural, and behavioral barriers. Given that agriculture, forestry, and land-use change remain significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in Zambia, the gap between knowledge and sustained practice is a critical challenge. Recognizing that technical training alone is insufficient, the FAO and national partners introduced a behavior-informed approach to close this gap. By grounding climate messaging in local realities and making it relatable, the program is effectively enabling farmers to alter ingrained behaviors, adopt essential CSA technologies, and enhance land management for long-term climate resilience.
The project’s success is rooted in its community-driven design. Implementation teams, comprised of behavioral scientists, agronomists, communication specialists, and extension officers from the SIFAZ and FACE-NDC projects, utilized focus groups and community dialogues to pinpoint local motivations, barriers, and needs across diverse demographics, including women, youth, and traditional leaders. Employing a behavioral prioritization framework, the program developed targeted interventions highly aligned with cultural norms and existing farming systems. This blended learning model combined practical field demonstrations, peer exchange, and participatory problem-solving, further reinforced by lead-farmer training, mentorship, and reflective learning. By positioning communities as co-creators of change, the initiative has fostered trust and commitment, significantly strengthening the extension system’s reliability.
The initial results demonstrate a powerful return on investment for this behavioral approach. The initiative has driven significant uptake of Sustainable Intensification Practices (SIPs), training over 47,600 farmers through the lead-farmer model. This widespread adoption has directly led to notable economic improvements, with participating households reporting average yield increases of 60 percent and profit gains of 40 percent. This data highlights that a behavior-responsive agricultural extension system can swiftly accelerate the adoption of climate-smart technology, boost productivity, and build essential resilience, particularly when women and youth are empowered as key change agents within their local communities.
With both the SIFAZ and FACE-NDC projects operating nationally, this highly successful model is now being rapidly scaled to additional districts as part of Zambia’s broader climate and agricultural policy framework. The nationwide expansion involves integrating behavior-change methodologies directly into existing extension and training curricula, bolstering digital platforms for efficient knowledge sharing, and significantly building capacity among local authorities and implementing partners. A detailed implementation framework is guiding the rollout across the Central, Copperbelt, Eastern, Southern, Western, and Northern provinces, confirming a comprehensive national expansion. By embedding behavioral science into climate action and empowering farmers as leaders, Zambia is advancing a robust, low-emission agrifood system model that promises to strengthen food security and significantly improve livelihoods across the country.
