Insights

We are building the evidence base for rural finance in Zambia.

DNC works at the exact point where maize is bought and a farmer's financial identity begins. That gives us a rare, ground-level view of smallholder markets, procurement and rural credit. We publish what we learn.

A knowledge organisation

Knowledge is the proof of the work.

An institution earns authority not by describing itself, but by contributing to what a field understands. As DNC operates, it generates evidence that governments, financial institutions, development partners and researchers can rely on. Publishing it, openly and with discipline, is how DNC becomes a reference point for smallholder maize procurement and rural finance in Zambia, and over time across Africa.

First pieces

The latest.

A dry cereal field silhouetted against a hazy evening sky

Insight · Agricultural insurance

Zambia insures a million farmers against drought.

The cover is sized to the input subsidy and paid to the farmer, so a lender cannot count on it. Ghana trials show approvals rise when cover is tied to the loan. Read

A woman pushing a bicycle loaded with sacks of produce along a dirt road to market

Insight · Pension design

One pension scheme reached eighty million people. Another reached a hundred thousand.

Kenya made informal sector contributions flexible. India kept them fixed and automatic. The gap is not about flexibility, and neither design fits a farmer paid once a season. Read

A woman pouring winnowed grain onto a heap at the roadside, with sacks beside her

Insight · Farmer registries

The registry knows who the farmer is. The lender needs to know what she sold.

Governments are registering farmers at record scale and the results are all about subsidies. Finance is waiting on a different piece of information. Read

Insight · Food systems

The world set out to halve food loss. The number moved the other way.

Eight years of the FAO Food Loss Index, and every region is losing more, not less. The reason points at infrastructure, not farming. Read

A woman smallholder farmer harvesting in her field

Insight · Gender and access

Same land, smaller harvest: the gender gap in farming is a gap in access

On the same size of land a woman grows less, and the reason is access, not ability. Read

Who uses the warehouse receipt system: large traders 67 percent, smallholder farmers 5 percent

Insight · Rural finance

Warehouse receipts were meant to bank Africa's farmers. Mostly, they bank its traders.

Two decades of records show who really uses them, and what has to come first. Read

Smallholder farming in Eastern Zambia

Insight · Farmer finance

Zambia's smallholders are not too risky to bank. They are invisible.

Why only about 14% reach formal credit, and what would actually change it. Read

A farmer holding harvested maize

Farmer story

A season in the Eastern Province: one farmer, one harvest, one record

Coming soon

Sunset over farmland in Zambia

Market intelligence

Maize markets in Eastern Zambia: the season ahead

Coming soon

Want to be told when we publish? Get in touch.

The Knowledge Hub

Ten ways we share what we learn.

01

Insights

Analysis and perspective from the work.

→02

Research

Original research on smallholder finance and procurement.

→03

Reports

Impact reports and operational reviews.

→04

Field Notes

Short notes from the ground in the Eastern Province.

→05

Farmer Stories

The people behind every transaction.

→06

Market Intelligence

Maize markets, prices and the season ahead.

→07

Policy

Evidence for policymakers and partners.

→08

Data

Datasets and figures, openly documented.

→09

Publications

Papers, briefs and downloads.

→10

News

Announcements and milestones.

→