The current paper has explored how smallholder maize farmers in Kaliwe area of Nyimba District in Zambia have adapted
to agricultural information. It is a thesis of a Master of Science in Geography dissertation. Although there is increased
awareness on the importance of agricultural information on climate adaptation, there is very little empirical evidence on
how such information is specifically applied by smallholder farmers in remote districts of Eastern Zambia particularly in
making their decisions. The primary goal was to understand how smallholder maize farmers use agriculture information in
their decision-making procedures in Kaliwe area. The qualitative approach was used, which was founded on the
descriptive research design. The purposive and expert purposive sampling methods were employed to get a sample of 46
respondents; including 36 smallholder maize farmers and 10 key informants. The analysis was guided by the Innovations
Diffusion Theory especially its aspects of innovation, communication media, and time to gain insight into the spread and
adoption of agricultural information to smallholder farmers.
The results on usefulness of agricultural information showed that most of the farmers testified that agricultural information
that was available was useful. Majority of the small hold farmers were relying on such information to plant drought tolerant
crops, early maturing crops and also to tune their farming calendar with respect to onset or end of rainfall. The results
showed that agricultural information reached out to smallholder maize farmers to inform them on how to use fertilizers,
nutrient retention practices, how to use pesticides and right farming practices. One of these methods of farming is mixed
farming where cereals including maize are planted with legumes including cowpeas or groundnuts, as legumes are known
to enhance the soil fertility level. In addition, the farmers have been planting better kinds of maize seeds that have a
tendency of growing in a short duration. The farmers have indicated that they used this information to modify their farming
activities.
The paper suggests that the small-scale farmers must be trained on the growing of various drought resistant crops;
conservation agriculture like crop rotation, cover crops and zero tillage should be realized effectively among the small
holder maize farmers. Lastly, the paper suggests that the Government of Zambia and its partners ought to introduce new
technologies like SMS alerts and mobile applications that can greatly enlarge and offer the right information on the weather
conditions, market prices and pests’ outbreaks that can accelerate the rates of adaptation.

Keywords: Adaptation, Agricultural information, Diffusion of Innovations, Crop diversification, Information Dissemination,
Resilience, Nyimba District, Smallholder farmers.