Farmers to start supplying schools locally
MANZINI – Women farmers in Eswatini are now eligible to supply local government schools with their produce.
They will now be included in the home grown school feeding programme in the current year.
This was made possible by the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Comesa Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB), Centre of Financial Inclusion (CFI) And World Food Programme (WFP).
The MoU was signed a month ago at the United Nation (UN) building in Mbabane and it will come into effect in the current year. According to the MoU, the three entities will work together on the establishment and strengthening of the participation of women farmer groups as local produce suppliers in the home grown school feeding programme.
STRENGTHENING
The organisations are tasked with providing capacity strengthening in key areas of business skills and financial capacity. This includes the strengthening of women groups to become registered cooperatives as well as training of women farmers on increasing agriculture productivity through the adaptation of climate smart agriculture and precision farming technologies. They are also tasked with the provision of appropriate agricultural input support as well as Value Chain Development Horticulture.
COMFWB CEO Ruth Nagesh said their role is to mobilise local farmers to be able to have opportunities to produce quality products. She said the organisation will make sure that local women farmers are able to access market both locally and abroad. “Ours it to make sure that local farmers are mobilised by organisations and the government to supply products locally and abroad,’’ she said.
The CEO added that they were also planning on reducing the number of imported products, which are also produced locally. COMFWB Chairperson Thandi Motsa added that the government and relevant stakeholders need to be engaged to discuss the pricing of local produce. She said one of the reasons why produce like maize is imported is because of entities like the National Maize Cooperation (NMC) purchase at a low price.
“We need to engage Parliament on the regulation of prices for local produce because it forces farmers into black market and failure of their business,’’ she said.
RESPONSIBLE
WFP will be responsible for the under programmatic process which involves the provision and facilitation of the selection of targeted participants for earmarked training sessions on various areas. These include working closely with COMFWB by contribute towards preparation design and packaging of relevant training materials. WFP Eswatini coordinator Deepark Shah said the tripartite agreement will help the organisation identify women farming cooperatives that will supply local schools will local grown produce. He said they are also responsible for finding market linkages for these co-operatives so that they can be able to sell their produce.
“WFP role in the agreement is to identify, train and identify linkages for women farming co-operatives and make sure they are able to sell all their produce,” he said.
He also mentioned that they will protect the women co-operatives once they have been registered because their aim is to attain the sustainable development goal (SDG) 2 on ending hunger and poverty. CFI CEO Nomcebo Hadebe said their role is promoting women and youth farmers locally to increase their visibility in the market area. She said CFI’s target is that from the 18500 farmers’ active in the country, 60 per cent are women and they will continue providing financial training for them. “We have to make sure that farmers understand how money is handled in the business sector and that they are able to separate it from personal accounts,” she said.
DIFFERENCE
Hadebe added that the training is a necessity as some farmers cannot tell the difference between a loans, aids and grants. About eight months ago, the Federation of National Associations of Women in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (FEMCOM) changed the name to the COMESA Federation of Women in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (COMFWB). COMFWB invited agri-business women in Eswatini who specialise on feedlot to form a team that will assist the women with the market of their products. Nxumalo said the aim of the organisation is to empower women in the business world and also make the market area more accessible for them.
She explained that the co-operative is not company, but an organisation formed exclusively to assist Eswatini women in the business world. “We are the same as Business Eswatini but our only difference is that we do not include men in our programme”, she said.
Items to be supplied in schools include:
● Vegetables
● Maize Meal
● Rice
● Beans
● Meat products