Old Wine in New Skins? Community Markets for Conservation and its Performance in Northern Zambia

Abstract

This study examined the performance of the Community Markets for Conservation(COMACO), an integrated conservation and development program, in achieving its twin goals of conservation and increased income among rural households in Zambia. It narrows the knowledge gap on achievements of reformulated ICDPs focused on markets. Random sampling was used to select 143 respondents while purposive sampling was employed to recruit focus group discussants and key informant interviewees. Data was collected through structured and semi structured interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, and desk analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis while quantitative data was analyzed using chi-square tests and measures of central tendency. Results show a significant relationship (χ2 = 143.0; p ≤ .0001) between market linkages and levels of conservation agriculture (CA)practice among COMACO households. We found that 72% of COMACO households linked to markets and provided with agricultural inputs had adopted CA. The dependency on COMACO for markets by farmers is unsustainable. There is little evidence on COMACOs success in reducing deforestation. COMACO’s ban on charcoal production and herbicide and mineral fertilizer use seem unrealistic given the low access to clean domestic energy and the high weed burden of CA. We conclude that the COMACO model is a repackaging of old ideas on ICDPs which yield mixed results and is in this sense is simply old wine in new skins. We recommend farmer training in value addition of their produce, branding, and linkages to markets so that they could sell to other aggregators and not be dependent on COMACO.