20 Ngwee FAO

The FAO coin program, launched in the late 1960s, commissioned member nations to issue coins bearing agricultural themes as part of a broader push to raise awareness for the Food and Agriculture Organization's development goals. Zambia participated across several denominations and years. The 1981 issue falls within a particularly difficult period for the country's economy, when copper revenues — the backbone of Zambian foreign exchange — had collapsed following the price crashes of the mid-1970s, straining government finances and limiting the scope of domestic agricultural investment the FAO program was nominally meant to support.