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The recognition of rice as a profitable smallholder cash crop and a major contributor to food security compelled the Governmentof Zambia to develop the National Rice Development Strategy(NRDS; 2011-2015). The NRDS identified inadequate availability of quality seed, outdated production technologies, poor agronomic practices and uncoordinated markets at farmers’ level as the main constraints to rice production in the country. The project aimed to address these constraints through interventions such as the purification of existing rice varieties and the development of improved ones, and the provision of capacity building in rice production for farmers in three target districts, namely Kasama and Mungwi districts in Northern Province and Chinsali district in Muchinga Province.