Programme Overview
The Zambia National Farmers Union represents hundreds of thousands of smallholder and commercial farmers across Zambia, including significant soy and maize producers supplying export markets. Soy is a covered commodity under the EU Deforestation Regulation, and ZNFU member farms supplying EU-bound soy are subject to the December 2026 enforcement deadline.
The smallholder aggregation structure creates a specific EUDR challenge: rather than a single large farm with a clear polygon boundary, ZNFU’s soy supply chain consists of thousands of individual smallholder plots, typically aggregated through cooperative buying points before reaching export. Each individual plot needs to be registered as a geo-polygon, even where the plot is less than one hectare.
GMIT’s approach to the ZNFU programme begins at the cooperative level. Using ODK Central mobile data collection deployed via ZNFU field officers, farm boundaries are captured using GPS-enabled smartphones during routine farmer registration visits. The data flows directly into the GMIT farm polygon registry, where each plot is assigned a unique farm ID and linked to the relevant cooperative buying point and ZNFU member number.
Satellite deforestation analysis then runs across all registered polygons against the GFC2020 forest reference layer. Zambia’s agricultural frontier, particularly in the Northern, Lusaka, and Central provinces where soy production is concentrated, requires specific analysis: miombo woodland is the dominant vegetation type and its seasonal deciduousness requires careful phenological calibration to distinguish from permanent deforestation.
The programme output is a cooperative-level DDS covering all aggregated smallholder plots supplying a given export consignment, with blockchain attestation on Polygon providing a verifiable audit trail. ZNFU field officers are trained in the data collection protocol, creating a sustainable in-country capacity rather than a consultant-dependent model.
Programme scoping underway. Full case study with results to be published following completion of cooperative-level polygon registration and first DDS submission cycle. Contact us for a briefing on the ZNFU programme structure.