By GLORIA SIWISHA
ABOUT 141 smallholder farmers in Chipata’s Manjakazi agricultural camp in Eastern province, have affirmed the need for farmers to have access to modern and affordable mechanization equipment such as 4-wheeled tractors.
The farmers, who are members of Dondo Multipurpose Cooperative, made the call when a delegation consisting of officials from the European Union, (EU), Department of Agriculture, and Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), visited them at their storage shed, to assess implementation of the SIFAZ project.
Dondo Cooperative Secretary Rogers Banda said acquisition of a 4-wheeled tractor would help members to complete more agricultural tasks at the right time, while also producing greater quantities of crops to enhance household food and nutrition security, as well as incomes.
Mr Banda, the cooperative would also bridge the gap as far as provision of affordable mechanization services was concerned and diversify income generation, as currently, the surrounding communities depended on tractor services which they hired mostly from the neighbouring Chadiza district.
Mr Banda said, previously, whilst using its own resources, the cooperative procured a maize-sheller, a 2-wheel tractor, and farm implements such as rippers, for use in farming activities at a fee but that these were inadequate to meet the increased demand for mechanisation services in the area.
“With the 4-wheeled tractor in place, farmers’ efficiency would be improved upon, since it makes work simpler and works faster than a two-wheel tractor that we currently have, and therefore we will ensure increased productivity and incomes for the cooperative; that is why we insist on acquiring it,” he said.
Dondo cooperative, is one of the six cooperatives in Chipata district benefiting directly from the ‘Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming Systems in Zambia (SIFAZ) project’ project whose goal is to test, promote and enhance the uptake of sustainable intensification practices among farmers through adaptive research, including mechanization and agribusiness promotion.
It also generates its resources through the sale of cooperative shares; membership fees, mechanization equipment hire, agricultural farming, poultry farming, and group savings.
District Agricultural Coordinator Victor Zulu explained earlier that Chipata district had five camps implementing the SIFAZ project, with three of them being promotional camps, while the other two were conducting adaptive research.
“The research component has Kanyanja camp which has intensification trials with 7 mother trials, and 175 baby trials; as well as Chinjala camp, which has crop mix trials with 7 mother trials and 175 baby trials. The camps promoting trials from research camps, are Mnoro 1, Feni, and Manjakazi. Each of the promotional camps has two cooperatives participating in the promotion of approved SIPs, mechanization and agribusiness promotion, bringing the number of cooperatives the project is working with to six,” he said.
Mr Zulu said SIFAZ had helped to expose farmers to improved farming practices needed to increase yields and incomes, and awakened them to the importance of embracing mechanization and agribusiness.
SIFAZ, is a European Union funded project which is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), from 2019 to 2027.
It seeks to improve the productivity and climate resilience of smallholder farming systems in Zambia through promotion of sustainable intensification practices, mechanization and agribusiness.
The project has an expanded target of 60,000 smallholder farmers and 143 cooperatives, in 27 districts and five provinces of Zambia.
It has recently earmarked a total of €1.75 million euros, for the implementation of a competitive matching grant, so as to strengthen agri-business activities of the 143 agricultural cooperatives that it is working with.
The grant would support four key areas of investment among them mechanization promotion; commodity aggregation and marketing, input acquisition and marketing, and green enterprises. –NAIS
