Africa-Press – Eswatini. Eswatini’s youth and women farmers will now be able to sell their produce to the general public and local government schools.
The youth will further receive business training from various entities, as well as market placement. The COMESA Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB) signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in less than a year to make this happen. The two signed MoUs are meant to increase the participation of local farmers, especially women and youth, in the local market.
COMFWB, the Centre for Financial Inclusion (CFI), and the World Food Programme (WFP) signed a tripartite MoU that will increase the supply of local produce in the home-grown school feeding programme. The MoU was signed yesterday at the United Nations (UN) building in Mbabane. 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 included working closely with COMFWB by contributing towards the preparation, design, and packaging of relevant training materials. COMFWB and the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) have also signed a MoU aimed at expanding the youth wing of all COMFWB projects. This means that both parties have collaborated to help the youth seek funding for their projects. The MoU was signed in Manzini two weeks ago.
Signed
YERF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mandla Nkambule signed the MoU on behalf of the fund, while COMFWB Chairperson Thandi Nxumalo signed on behalf of COMFWB. According to the tripartite MoU, CFI, COMFWB and WFP 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. The organisations are tasked with strengthening capacity in key areas of business skills and financial capacity. This includes strengthening women’s groups to become registered cooperatives, as well as training 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 in horticulture. Nxumalo also added that the government and relevant stakeholders needed to be engaged to discuss the pricing of local produce.
Maize
She said one of the reasons why produce like maize is imported is because entities like the National Maize Cooperation (NMC) purchase it at a low price. “We need to engage parliament on the regulation of prices for local produce because it forces farmers into the black market and the failure of their businesses,” she said. Speaking during the event, WFP Eswatini coordinator Deepark Shah said the tripartite agreement will help the organisation identify women’s farming cooperatives that will supply local schools with locally grown produce.
He said they are also responsible for finding market linkages for these cooperatives so that they can sell their produce. “WFP’s role in the agreement is to identify, train, and identify linkages for women farming cooperatives and make sure they are able to sell all their produce,” he said. Shah also mentioned that they will protect the women’s cooperatives once they have been registered because their aim is the attainment of sustainable development goal two on ending hunger and poverty.
Promote
CFI CEO Nomcebo Hadebe said their role is to promote women and youth farmers locally to increase their visibility in the market area. She said CFI’s target is that of the 18 500 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. Hadebe added that the training is a necessity as some farmers cannot tell the difference between loans, aid, and grants.
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