ZARI - Zambia Agriculture Research Institute

The Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) is one of the departments in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. The overall objective of the department is to provide a high quality, appropriate and cost effective service to farmers, generating and adapting crop, soil and plant protection technologies.

This department is comprised of the Research Management Team which co-ordinates, manages and controls the human, physical and financial resources of four technical divisions, Central Services and Administration. The technical divisions are Crop Improvement and Agronomy, Soils and Water Management, Plant Protection and Quarantine, and Farming Systems and Social Sciences. Central Services provides biometrics, library, documentation and information services to the department. Administration provides the remaining support services.

There are eight (8) research programmes under the Crop Improvement and Agronomy Division, three (3) under Soils and Water Management Division, four (4) under Plant Protection and Quarantine Division and four (4) under Farming Systems and Social Sciences Division.

The divisions and management form the programme components of the Annual Work Plan and Budget. Activities under these programmes were conducted at the 10 ZARI research stations and on-farm. In addition, Poverty Reduction activities under the themes Enhanced Research Services; Seed Multiplication; and Generation of Technologies and Dissemination of Research and Infrastructure Rehabilitation were conducted at 9 stations.