Decoding conservation agriculture discourses in Zambia: advocacy politics, contestations, and emerging narratives

Conservation Agriculture is globally promoted as a sustainable response to food insecurity and climate change, yet adoption in Zambia remains low despite decades of promotion. This study explores the discursive roots of this challenge, moving beyond economic and agronomic explanations. Using an integrated framework of discourse analysis and narrative policy analysis, and a hybrid purposive-random sampling, data were collected from 111 stakeholders and media reports across five districts in Central and Lusaka provinces. Findings reveal a disconnect between dominant narratives and farmers’ lived realities. Three narrative patterns emerged: advocacy narratives led by donors and extension agents framing conservation agriculture as climate-smart and yield-stabilising; counternarratives from smallholder farmers emphasising labour demands, input costs, and cultural barriers; and overlooked “nonstories”, including partial adoption and Indigenous knowledge revival. The study concludes that low adoption stems from narrative conflict and exclusion of farmer-led adaptation, calling for policy engagement through guide inclusive, context-sensitive conservation agriculture policy.