@masterthesis{Siamudaala, type = {Bachelor Thesis}, author = {Siamudaala, Nathan}, title = {Enhancing the Resilience of the Zambian Maize and Aquaculture Value Chains}, school = {Hochschule Rhein-Waal}, abstract = {Many Zambian people depend on Maize for their livelihoods and much of their nutrition. With the increase in the number of disruptions globally, much of the Zambian population is at risk of suffering from malnutrition. Also, the Maize bias has not assisted poverty reduction, especially in rural areas. In response, the Zambian government has urged farmers to diversify and invest in other agricultural sectors. One industry that has been of interest to the state is the aquaculture sector. This thesis aims to understand the resilience of Maize and aquaculture value chains to offer policy recommendations to decision-makers. To that end, this study utilizes a metric called the Farmers Adaptive Ratio, which looks at a loss in a food systems resilience after a disturbance occurs and a value chain resilience assessment questionnaire in order to understand reasons for or the lack of resilience. Results show that the Zambian Maize value chain is not resilient to the Fall Army Worm and Droughts. However, the disruptions do not affect all actors in the same way. For example, the study discovered that small-scale farmers are the most vulnerable to shocks. The aquaculture value chain displayed much higher resilience than the Maize value chain. The most significant disturbance is the volatile feed prices. The resilience of both value chains can be enhanced by employing long-term irrigation policies and investing in research and development to find local solutions to some of the disturbances.}, language = {en} }