Investigate the Effects of Production and Profitability of Smallholder Potato Farmers: A Case Study of Kalombo Ward, Chavuma Constituency in Chavuma District of North-Western Province of Zambia

The main reason of this study was to investigate the production and profitability of irish potato smallholder farmers’ performance in Kalombo ward, Chavuma constituency in Chavuma District. The study aimed at determining economic profitability of Irish potatoes grown by small-scale farmers; identify existing Irish potato marketing channels and the role played by the key market participants and to examine the pricing structure of Irish potato farmers at different levels of market chain with a view towards establishing margins at different levels of market channels.

The study used a cross sectional survey in which data was collected at a single point at a time. A total of 120 respondents were organized and interviewed for this study being 90 farmers and 30 traders. The research showed that the economic profitability of Irish potatoes was negatively affected by two sets of barriers; production and marketing challenges.

On the production part, challenges such as lack of high yielding cultivars, insufficient seed tubers, diseases, storage problems, low market prices, soil degradation and lack of agrochemicals were the main challenge in Chavuma District. Another constraints were observed from the marketing of Irish potatoes in the study area were the main bottlenecks as mentioned by farmers’ especially unreliable market, uncertain prices, poor infrastructures, fewer buyers, and improper measurements.