This Master thesis is the result of a study in which we looked at people's livelihoods - through the sustainable rural livelihoods analytical framework - from a coordination failure perspective. During three weeks spent in the district of Ribáuè, Mozambique, enabled us to conduct interviews with people from many different social categories and understand the conditions in which small-scale farmers live. The paper tackles issues related to development in general and governmental intervention and contributes to the debate about the type of growth which is on-going in Mozambique. What are the coordination failures that impact people's livelihoods in Mozambique, a country where strong economic growth does not seem to help the poorest to get out of poverty. / The Mozambican economy is characterised by a high level of employment in the agricultural sector. Most farmers are small-scale and farm for subsistence. As development at global level will continue to pressure these farmers to increase their productivity, the question is to know how this will affect the small-scale farmers’ capacity to improve their livelihoods. The economy of the African continent is predicted to rise substantially and countries like Mozambiquehave been praised for their staggering economic growth. However despite growth, the situation remains unchanged for many small-scale farmers. The intention of this research is then to look into the conditions in which small-scale agricultural activities take place. This study was carried out is the district of Ribáuè, located in the northern provinceof Nampula, Mozambique and adopts an abductive approach as it investigates coordination failures around farming activities. In other words, aspects concerning agricultural activities that are difficult to observe, will be included. The starting point for this argument is that it is impossible to obtain sustainable development (i.e. including small-scale farmers) without taking a holistic approach. Through this study, it becomes clear that small-scale farmers face a variety of obstacles from which patterns can be extracted. Strong emphasis is put on the importance of surrounding factors such as infrastructures, access to credit, wage work opportunities, access to inputs, extension services, and market access.  All these factors impact people’s livelihoods; and by investing in all of them in a coordinated way, it creates synergetic effects and boosts the potential for further development of each feature. This inter-connectivity becomes clear when considering that wage work opportunities are created when investments are made in the rehabilitation of infrastructures or the expansion of extension services. Furthermore, market access increases when the connectivity of remote farmers is improved and their livelihoods develop when their surplus can be sold. The amount of surplus farmers have is in turn affected by their financial capital, access to inputs, and access to extension services. Singling out one of these features as more important than the others risks missing the point and hindering sustainable development. This calls for big versatile government investments, in the form of big push policies, to ensure that these areas inter-connect and to create the highest possible levels of synergy.

Africa’s agricultural productivity is the lowest in the world. At the same time the largest proportion of poor people live in rural areas where they are dependent upon agriculture for their survival. Agriculture is thus an essential to consider when fighting poverty. Women make up 70-80 % of the labour force in the agricultural sector and produce about 80% of the food for the household. Women are at the same time dependent upon their husbands for access to agricultural land and financial resources. Despite the important role of agriculture for poverty reduction, the sector continues to lack attention from both governments and international organizations, and the fact that gender discrimination is a cause of poverty is rarely raised.   This thesis aims to investigate, through a field study in Zambia, which conditions and circumstances that create low agricultural productivity, based on how the peasants themselves perceive it. The paper aims to problematize the question of low agricultural productivity by looking at the issue of land access and gender equality. This thesis takes its methodological point of departure in a qualitative ethnographic field study with semi-structured interviews. In order to analyze the peasants situation Sustainable Rural Livelihood has been used as an analytical framework.   The result of this thesis shows that peasants’ productivity mainly is hampered by the fact that they lack access to productive and financial resources. The overall difficult macro-economic situation in Zambia, together with the fact that investments from the government in the agricultural sector and in rural development is small, contributes to a situation that hinders peasants’ opportunities to increase productivity with other means than just working harder. Furthermore, the result shows that women experience gender discrimination in accessing land, credits and education. The difference between men and women is structural and is the result of unequal access to resources, which have given men more power and influence. Hence, women have become dependent upon their husbands to gain access to land and financial resources, implying that women become both vulnerable and isolated. Access to land would strengthen women’s economical dependency and give them the possibility to control the income and investment made in agriculture. / Afrikas jordbruksproduktivitet är lägst i hela världen,.sSamtidigt som den största delen av fattiga människor bor på landsbygden där de är beroende av jordbruket för sin överlevnad. Jordbruket är därmed en central fråga för att kunna bekämpa fattigdom. Kvinnor utgör 70-80 % av arbetskraften inom jordbrukssektorn och producerar cirka 80 % av maten till familjen. Samtidigt är kvinnor beroende av sina män för tillgång till jordbruksmark och finansiella resurser. Trots jordbrukets viktiga roll för fattigdomsbekämpning fortsätter sektorn att bli åsidosatt av både regeringar och internationella organisationer, samtidigt som bristen på könsdiskriminering som en orsak till fattigdom sällan tas upp.   Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka, genom en fältstudie i Zambia, vilka förhållanden och omständigheter som skapar låg jordbruksproduktivitet, utifrån hur böndernas själva ser på det. Uppsatsen ämnar problematisera frågan om låg jordbruksproduktivitet genom att titta på frågan om tillgång till land och jämställdhet mellan kvinnor och män. Uppsatsen har sin metodologiska utgångspunkt i en kvalitativ etnografisk fältstudie med semi-strukturerade intervjuer. För att analysera böndernas situation har Sustainable Rural Livelihood använts som analytiskt ramverk.   Resultatet av denna studie visar att bönders produktivitet framförallt hindras av det faktum att de saknar tillgångar till produktiva och finansiella resurser. Den övergripande svåra makroekonomiska situationen i Zambia, tillsammans med att investeringar från regeringen i jordbrukssektorn och landsbygds utveckling är små, bidrar till en situation som hämmar böndernas möjligheter att öka sin produktivitet på andra sätt än genom att enbart arbeta hårdare. Vidare pekar resultatet av denna studie på att kvinnor upplever könsdiskriminering vad gäller tillgången till land, krediter och utbildning. Skillnaden mellan män och kvinnor  är strukturell och bottnar i en ojämlik tillgång till resurser, vilket gett män mer makt och inflytande. Detta har gjort att kvinnor är i nuläget är beroende av sina män för tillgång till land och finansiella resurser, vilket innebär att de blir både sårbara och isolerade. Tillgång till land skulle stärka kvinnors ekonomiska oberoende och ge dem möjligheten att själva kontrollera intäkterna och investeringarna i jordbruket.