Across Africa, digital technologies are rapidly reshaping the way governments, development partners, and farmers interact. In Zambia, this digital transformation is taking root through the Zambia Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (ZIAMIS) – a pioneering platform designed to improve transparency, efficiency, and resilience across agricultural programmes.
At the recent FAO Resilience Team for Africa Community of Practice (CoP) meeting, Zambia’s experience in integrating e-registers, e-vouchers and e-extension, underlined how digital tools are revolutionizing agricultural governance, service delivery and farmer resilience. These digital innovations are enabling better-targeted support to millions of smallholder farmers, while addressing persistent challenges such as weak data systems, financial leakages, and limited access to markets and advisory services.
“Digital agriculture goes beyond technology. It is about connecting people, systems, and institutions to deliver support that is effective, inclusive, and accountable. It ensures that farmers, whether in remote areas or urban centers, have equal access to quality services and information,” expressed Priya Gujadhur, Senior Resilience Officer, Regional Office for Africa, in her opening reflections.
Zambia’s Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP) and the Comprehensive Agriculture Transformation Support Programme (CATSP) have both placed strong emphasis on digitization, integration, and data protection as core enablers for agricultural resilience. By investing in these areas, the country is transforming the way farmers are registered, supported, and linked to value chains.
Before the introduction of digital systems, Zambia’s agricultural programmes faced several operational bottlenecks: limited real-time monitoring, weak due diligence in beneficiary identification, inconsistent technical standards, and potential risks of misappropriation. Accountability and transparency were often compromised, and programme impacts were difficult to measure.
To overcome these issues, the Government of Zambia, with FAO support, developed electronic farmer registers covering 4.3 million verified and traceable farmers. Each farmer, cooperative, and vendor now receives a unique digital ID, improving traceability and compliance with public finance and procurement procedures. More than 1 million farmers, 22 suppliers, and 1 200 agrodealers are already participating annually in the digital system, with transactions fully tracked and validated.
ZIAMIS, a web-based and access-controlled platform operating on both Android and Windows applications, integrates agricultural data to support evidence-based planning and reporting. Through this system, all transactions – from input redemption to crop sales – are digitally recorded, ensuring integrity, reducing risks, and providing real-time insights for decision-makers.
While digital registration was a critical first step, Zambia has gone further by linking ZIAMIS to an e-Business Directory that connects farmers to reliable buyers, input suppliers, financial services, and mechanization providers. This integration is helping bridge the gap between smallholders and markets, turning digital inclusion into economic opportunity.
The results are striking, between 2022 and 2025, farmers receiving digital advisories and e-extension services recorded higher maize productivity, reaching up to 3.4 tonnes per hectare, compared to the national average of 2.14 tonnes. The number of farmers selling white maize also increased sharply, generating over USD 8.9 million in sales.
By connecting the farmer register to e-extension platforms and early warning systems, Zambia is also enabling targeted agronomic and agribusiness advisories based on rainfall, vegetation, and temperature data. This ensures that farmers receive season and location-specific information that helps them adapt to climate variability, manage risks, and make informed decisions.
“One of the key strengths of the ZIAMIS registers integrated with the e-Business Directory is its ability to deliver tailored information to different users through a web platform, mobile app, and chatbot. In areas with limited internet, farmers can still access essential updates via SMS and USSD” explained Mtendere Mphatso, FAO Zambia Chief Technical Advisor.
Digital innovation in Zambia is demonstrating that technology can be a powerful driver of agricultural transformation when integrated into robust policy frameworks and institutional systems. The integration of e-registers, e-vouchers, and e-extension into a single digital ecosystem enhances coordination, transparency, and service delivery.
“The Zambia experience demonstrates what can be achieved when technology is placed in the hands of those who need it most – farmers, extension workers, and service providers – and when strong partnerships and technical capacity support government leadership. It shows how data and digital systems can drive resilience, improve transparency, and link producers to opportunities that strengthen livelihoods,” reflected Lewis Hove, Senior Resilience Officer, Subregional Office for Southern Africa, in his closing reflections.
Through platforms like ZIAMIS, Zambia is not only modernizing its agricultural systems but also offering valuable lessons for the continent: that digital innovation, when combined with good governance and farmer-centered design, can unlock the full potential of Africa’s agriculture.
The FAO Regional Office for Africa will continue to facilitate knowledge exchange across the region, ensuring that lessons from Zambia’s digital transformation inform ongoing efforts to build smarter, data-driven, and resilient agricultural systems across the continent.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Regional Office for Africa.
