Cultivating one hectare of maize used to be an arduous task for Precious Banda, a farmer in Zambia. It would take her hundreds of hours to prepare her land before sowing and to keep it weed-free until harvest—equipped with nothing but a small hoe. She says it was backbreaking work: "I can still feel it." For a few years now she has hired a tractor, and a neighbor sprays herbicides for her. "Life has become so easy," she says.
