1. Acceptance
By accessing ziap.org or any page linked from it, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. If you use the site on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organisation, and "you" then includes it.
These terms apply to the website and to pages published under ziap.org. They do not replace the separate written agreements that govern a data-sharing arrangement, a grant, a volunteer placement, or a microloan. Where a signed agreement conflicts with these terms, the signed agreement governs that relationship.
2. About ZIAP
Zambia-Iowa Agricultural Partners is a tax-exempt public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, EIN 99-2864574, governed by a volunteer board. ZIAP operates agricultural development programs in Zambia: field-tested agronomy training, farm financial record-keeping, and village savings group microfinance. Our methodology and published results are set out on the strategy and data page, and our finances on the impact report page.
ZIAP is a development organization. Nothing published here is a substitute for professional agronomic, financial, or legal advice given to a specific farm, household, or institution.
3. Permitted use
You may read, print, and share this site for personal, educational, or non-commercial research purposes. You may link to any page using the full canonical URL. Automated access is permitted at a rate of no more than one request per second, using a standard browser agent or a declared crawler, and you must not attempt to bypass any access control.
Accessibility is a requirement rather than an exception. Nothing in these terms restricts assistive technology, screen readers, keyboard navigation, translation for personal use, or the reproduction of content for a reader with a print disability.
4. Prohibited use
You may not:
- Copy the site in bulk in order to publish a substantially identical version elsewhere.
- Present ZIAP as endorsing, funding, or partnering with a product, service, candidate, or cause, without written authorization.
- Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site, its server, or any connected system, or to probe for vulnerabilities without written permission.
- Introduce malicious code, or use the site to distribute malware, phishing material, or unlawful content.
- Use a donation form or any other facility on the site to process someone else's payment, or to collect funds in ZIAP's name without an agreement.
- Harvest farmer or household-level personal information from any published table, figure, or dataset.
We may block access, without notice, where use appears designed to damage the site or to misrepresent the organization.
5. Content and licence
ZIAP owns or holds the rights to the text, design, charts, curricula, and imagery published on this site, except where a third party is credited on the page itself. Field photographs and recorded field data remain the property of the households and field teams who produced them.
We publish this material in the hope that it is reused. Subject to section 4, you may reproduce excerpts for research, teaching, and non-commercial publication with attribution: "Zambia-Iowa Agricultural Partners (ziap.org)", the year of publication, and the page or section title. For a commercial publication, a complete republication of a chart or dataset, or use of the ZIAP name in your own materials, write to info@ziap.org; we normally say yes, and we ask for credit rather than permission in most cases.
Figures published in demonstration layouts of this site may be illustrative. Where a figure is illustrative rather than audited, it is labelled as such on the page, and only the figures in the issued annual report should be cited as program outcomes.
6. Reusing the methods
The field protocol, the curricula, and the household ledger spreadsheet are published so that other programs, extension services, and individual farmers can run them. You may adapt and redistribute them freely, including in translation, with the following expectations:
- Do not change the paired-plot design and then report the result as a ZIAP finding. The treatment and control structure is what makes the yield comparison interpretable; removing it removes the claim.
- Keep the measurement step. A practice taught without a record of its cost and return returns the program to the relief model the method exists to replace.
- Report the season and rainfall. The same practice performs differently in a season with one planting rain and a season with three. A result without rainfall context cannot be transferred.
- Cite the origin. Where a method came from us, say so.
We can also provide training on the protocol through the academic collaboration route.
7. Names and marks
"Zambia-Iowa Agricultural Partners", "ZIAP", the ZIAP wordmark, and the layout of this site are our marks. Descriptive use — stating truthfully that your organisation partners with or is inspired by ZIAP — does not require permission. Use of the marks in your organisation's name, logo, or product branding does, and ZIAP does not grant that permission to anyone on the basis of a donation.
8. Donations
The donation tiers on the get involved page illustrate what a gift funds. They are not offers, commitments, or appeals for payment, and the mapping of an amount to a program output is an illustration of unit cost rather than a contractual allocation.
- Tax deductibility. ZIAP is a 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 99-2864574. Gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Consult your own adviser about your circumstances, particularly for a non-US donor, where the treatment may be different.
- Receipts. A receipt is issued for every completed gift. ZIAP never charges a gift fee and never adds a processing surcharge on top of the amount you choose.
- Restricted gifts. A restricted gift is applied to the purpose you name. If that purpose becomes impossible or unlawful, we contact the donor before the gift is redirected, and we do not redirect silently.
- Anonymous gifts. A donor may request that no name be published or acknowledged. ZIAP may be legally required to disclose a donor's identity to a regulator; we will tell the donor if that happens, before disclosure where the law allows.
- Fraud warning. We will never ask for payment details by email, text message, or phone. Verify ZIAP's status with EIN 99-2864574 on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search before sending funds to any address.
- Refunds. A donation is an irrevocable transfer of funds, so a refund is discretionary. A duplicate or erroneous charge is refunded in full. Ask within 90 days.
- Employment and goods. ZIAP is a volunteer organization and does not offer employment, and it does not sell goods.
9. Data and research
Plot-level yield data, rainfall logs, and household ledgers are released to academic partners under a written data-sharing agreement, not under these terms. That agreement sets the permitted purpose, the security requirements, the publication review, and the deletion schedule, and it prohibits the publication of household identifiers.
Aggregated figures published on this site may be reused for any purpose with attribution. Aggregates are provided as reported and are not a warranty that a particular farm will achieve a similar result. Demonstration layout figures are illustrative and must not be cited as outcomes.
10. Third-party content and links
This site links to external websites — grantmaker pages, tax verification tools, research partners, and payment processors. We do not control them and we are not responsible for their content, their privacy practices, or their availability. A link is not an endorsement. Payment processing is handled by a third party under its own terms, which are presented before any charge is made.
11. Disclaimers
The site is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, ZIAP disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and uninterrupted availability. Specifically:
- Agronomic practices described here are educational. Application rates, timing, and input choices must be matched to your soil, rainfall, and crop by someone who can observe them.
- Financial figures are for the program year stated. They are not projections, not investment advice, and not a promise of future results.
- Programme outcomes depend on rainfall, input supply, labour availability, and policy conditions outside our control. Historical yield gains do not predict any individual harvest.
- Microfinance terms are set by village savings groups, not by ZIAP, and are not a credit offer. Loan eligibility is decided locally and may be refused.
- We do not warrant that the site will be error-free or available at any particular time, and a volunteer-maintained site may be unavailable without notice.
12. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, ZIAP, its board members, volunteers, staff, and contributors are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, crops, income, or data, arising from your use of this site or your reliance on anything published on it. This includes a decision to apply, or not to apply, an agricultural practice described here.
Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the greater of the amount you paid to access the site — which is nil — or USD 100. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
13. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify ZIAP and its volunteers against any claim, loss, or expense, including reasonable legal costs, arising from your misuse of this site, your breach of these terms, your violation of a third party's rights, or your publication of ZIAP data or methods in a way that misrepresents a field result.
14. Changes and termination
We may revise these terms, and may change, suspend, or withdraw any part of the site, at any time. A material change takes effect on publication of the updated date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the site after that date means you accept the revised terms.
We may terminate your access immediately, without notice, for a breach of section 4 or for conduct that harms the organization, a household in the program, or a donor.
15. General terms
- Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Iowa, United States, without regard to conflict of law rules. Disputes are first brought to the organization's Board President for resolution; either party may then pursue the courts of Polk County, Iowa.
- Severability. If a provision is found unenforceable, the remainder of these terms continues in effect.
- No waiver. A failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it, and does not prevent later enforcement.
- Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them as part of a merger or transfer of assets, on notice to you.
- Third-party rights. No person other than you and ZIAP acquires rights under these terms.
- Entire agreement. These terms, the privacy policy, and any signed agreement referred to in them form the entire agreement between us regarding the site.
16. Contact
Charts, curricula, and the ledger spreadsheet are ours to share.
501(c)(3) public charity · EIN 99-2864574.
Formal legal correspondence should be addressed to the Board President at the organization's postal address, published on the impact report page, marked for the attention of the Board President. Email is faster; post is more formal; both work.