This study investigates Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) practices among formally registered agricultural enterprises and innovation system actors in Lusaka Province, Zambia, examining how these practices align with principles of a Sustainable Knowledge Economy (SKE). Employing an interpretivist-constructivist paradigm, the study utilised a collective case study design with purposive sampling and a maximum variation strategy to capture diverse institutional perspectives across six key actor types — private consultancy, international research organisations, and national government agencies — specifically selected to represent the principal functional positions within the Lusaka Province agricultural innovation ecosystem. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six elite participants, supplemented by documentary analysis of five organisational sources. Thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-phase framework generated contextually grounded insights. The findings reveal three fundamental paradoxes: a capacity paradox whereby donor funding abundance (approximately 90% of R&D financing) coexists with severe absorptive capacity constraints, evidenced by 50% grant burn rates and 97% application rejection rates; an epistemic sovereignty deficit in which domestic knowledge production occurs alongside externalised validation authority; and an inclusion paradox whereby sophisticated innovations systematically exclude smallholder beneficiaries through infrastructure prerequisites and financial gatekeeping. Environmental sustainability is framed instrumentally as a productivity co-benefit, whilst social inclusion rhetoric is undermined by elite capture. The research contributes theoretically by challenging the componential fallacy in National Innovation Systems theory and conceptualising epistemic sovereignty deficits in post-colonial innovation systems. Whilst findings are grounded in Lusaka Province, the structural dynamics identified resonate with broader patterns in sub-Saharan African agricultural innovation systems. Policy recommendations address infrastructure-first investment, regulatory harmonisation, domestic R&D funding sovereignty, and curriculum reform.