For several years, the Zambian economy relied on the mining sector, which has been affected by fluctuations in commodity prices. The new century enhanced the calls for economic diversification, with the agricultural, manufacturing, and services sectors amongst those pronounced. This article focused on the role of agriculture in supporting the economy, particularly, the effect of agriculture on economic growth. The data analyzed was reviewed for the period 1983–2017. The ARDL Bounds Test was applied in order to meet the said objectives. The ECM results suggest that agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining converge to an equilibrium and affect economic growth at the speed of adjustment of 90.6%, with the effect from agriculture, mining, and services being significant. The impact of agriculture on economic growth was significant in both the short-run and long-run, with coefficient unit effects of 0.428 and 0.342, respectively. The effects are strong because more than two-thirds of the rural population rely on farming, and agriculture has stood as a catalyst for food security. For the effect of agriculture to be much more profound, farmers must be supported with adequate infrastructure, accessibility to markets, farming inputs, better irrigation techniques, which would address the problem of reliance on rain, all of which were inconsistent in the last decade. Additionally, governments must ensure the institutionalization of food processing industries which add more value to the national income.

African countries have faced competition and several challenges to attract foreign direct investment given the role that FDIs play in the development process. Several efforts made have been futile because of numerous factors that play against the business environment for foreign investments. Our paper analyses the influence of tax incentives on foreign direct investment in African economies based on data from 2000–2018. We utilized panel data on forty (40) African countries and an econometric model of four proxies of tax incentives, after controlling other variables, with robust Random Effect as our discussion estimator. Our results revealed that FDI responds to lower corporate income tax (CTR). Furthermore, foreign direct investment predominates in African economies with longer tax holidays and withholding tax. However, tax concession is insignificant to the inflows of FDIs in Africa. Summarizing, our results recommend that without proper restructuring of the tax incentives to deal with policy lapses by the governments of Africa, achieving the four main goals, i.e., poverty eradication, sustainable growth and development, African integration in the competitive global economy, and women empowerment, will be hindered.

The world has experienced increased impacts of anthropogenic global warming due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which include carbon dioxide (CO₂). Anthropogenic activities that contribute to CO₂ emissions include deforestation, usage of fertilizers, and activities related to mining and energy production. The main objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of agriculture and energy production on CO₂ emissions in Zambia. This research used econometric analysis, specifically the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test, to analyze the relationship between CO₂ emissions and GDP, electricity consumption, agricultural production, and industry value added. The results showed the presence of cointegration, where the variables of CO₂ emissions, GDP, electricity, and agriculture converge to a long-run equilibrium at the rate of 74%. Further, there was a short-run causality towards CO₂ emissions running from agriculture and the consumption of energy as indicated by the Wald test. This is the first study of its kind that empirically shows the impact of agricultural activities and energy consumption on the Zambian environment through their contribution to CO₂ emissions at a macro (country) level. This paper also presents recommendations that are pertinent to mitigate these effects. To deescalate environmental degradation, we propose increasing the number of access points for multiple renewable energy sources across the country; discouraging deforestation, the usage of conventional fertilizers, and the burning of vegetation for fertilizers; encouraging afforestation and reforestation, in addition to providing subsidies, training, and financial support to farmers and entrepreneurs who decide to use environmentally friendly agricultural methods and renewable energy. This research highlights the serious impacts of anthropogenic activities on CO₂ emissions. The study was intended to assist Zambian policymakers in formulating and implementing environmentally friendly policy measures or systems that will contribute towards environmental protection commitments and sustainable economic development.

While the market price of land in Czechia has increased in recent years, the officially set land price, published by the State Land Office and the Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation, has decreased in several regions (Olomouc, Zlín, South Moravia, Moravian-Silesian, and Central Bohemia Region). Four out of five of these regions are said to have the most fertile soil. The main reason for the official land price decrease has been the re-evaluation of land parcels which are based on field sample testing. Based on these sample tests some parcels have been re-evaluated as less fertile. This paper aims to identify the main determinants, which led to the decrease of the official land price and soil fertility in these regions of Czechia. It has been determined that crop structure significantly differs from the “valuation type structure” which indicates optimal share of individual crops to achieve the optimal yield without soil degradation. It has also been determined that there were statistically significant differences in all selected regions for all observed crops (excluding rapeseed in Moravian-Silesian Region) and Czechia between the shares of individual crops and shares according to the “valuation type structure”. It may be concluded that farmers follow short-term interests (profit) instead of long-term goals (soil fertility) in the selected regions. Moreover, results for Czechia suggest that this trend is becoming more common in every region of Czechia. Thus, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index was utilized. The Herfindahl–Hirschman Index shows decreasing crop diversity in all selected region, as in Czechia as well. Based on the data analysis, it is possible to identify several crops, which are prevailing (wheat, barley, rapeseed, and fodder crops). Three of these crops (wheat, barley, and rapeseed) in combination with intensive farming and poor crop rotation have been found to be problematic and a potential threat which may cause degradation in soil fertility. Based upon this the following measures have been recommended: First, to focus on proven agricultural practices, including crop rotation and fodder crops. Second, the fodder crops production should be supported, and the structure of the “single area payment subsidies” should reflect the negative impact of the three main prevailing crops (wheat, maize, and barley) on soil fertility and the decrease of livestock production in Czechia.

Machine learning algorithms have been applied in the agriculture field to forecast crop productivity. Previous studies mainly focused on the whole crop growth period while different time windows on yield prediction were still unknown. The entire growth period was separated into each month to assess their corresponding predictive ability by taking maize production (silage and grain) in Czechia. We present a thorough assessment of county-level maize yield prediction in Czechia using a machine learning algorithm (extreme learning machine (ELM)) and an extensive set of weather data and maize yields from 2002 to 2018. Results show that sunshine in June and water deficit in July were vastly influential factors for silage maize yield. The two primary climate parameters for grain maize yield are minimum temperature in September and water deficit in May. The average absolute relative deviation (AARD), root mean square error (RMSE), and coefficient (R2) of the proposed models are 6.565–32.148%, 1.006–1.071%, 0.641–0.716, respectively. Based on the results, silage yield will decrease by 1.367 t/ha (3.826% loss), and grain yield will increase by 0.337 t/ha (5.394% increase) when the max temperature in May increases by 2 °C. In conclusion, ELM models show a great potential application for predicting maize yield.

This paper establishes the determinants of the export durability of agriculture products in Zambia with specific attention to maize, sugar, cotton, and tobacco between 1996 and 2019. We find that approximately 39% of Zambia’s agricultural products were exported beyond the first year of trading and less than 10% lasted up to 6 years of trading. The mean and median duration of exporting agricultural products in Zambia was 1.7 years and 1 year, respectively. Among the products, maize had the highest export duration after the first year of trading, followed by sugar, tobacco, and cotton. Results of the discrete-time logit and probit models with random effects revealed that the duration of total agricultural products was significantly impacted by common colony, contiguity, partner’s gross domestic product (GDP), Zambia’s GDP, initial exports, and total exports. Of these factors, colonial history and Zambia’s GDP reduced export duration, while contiguity, partner’s GDP, initial exports, and total exports increased the durability of exports in Zambia. The effect of Zambia’s GDP was uniform across all individual agricultural products. Total exports also significantly impacted all other agriculture products in a similar manner except for maize. Export durability for cotton was significantly impacted by the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), while the export durability of tobacco was significantly impacted by distance, contiguity, and partner’s GDP. To increase the duration of agriculture exports, we propose the exporting of finished agriculture products (and not just raw materials), which have a higher market value and duration probability. Farmers also need support with export subsidies, increased foreign market access (especially to economies with higher buying power), and negotiated favorable trade terms in the region and around the globe.