Africa-Press – Eswatini. The National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBoard) is aiming to improve the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) through import substitution and export promotion.
This was stated by NAMBoard Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bhekizwe Maziya through a press statement released recently.
He said through their Horticulture forum they were hoping to improve the country’s GDP.
Maziya said as an organisation with the mandate to promote local production, which would lead to sustainable food security in the country, it had become evident that there was a need for interventions to address the challenges based on the current economic landscape in order to inform production for markets.
“It is also evident that existing market opportunities form the driver for investment in production systems, market linkages and conservation of soil and water resources. Production of commodities, suitable both for household nutrition and market supply will be enhanced as will the linkage between markets and producers, resulting in improved food security and sustainable incomes,” Maziya said.
He said in an attempt to circumvent the different challenges, NAMBoard in collaboration with Eswatini Water and Agriculture Development Enterprise (ESWADE) through the Smallholder Market-Led Project (SMLP) would be hosting the second Horticulture Innovation Platform titled: “Linking Farmers to Market Opportunities” on Thursday at Esibayeni Lodge in Matsapha.
“The challenges are that smallholder farmers often lack access to profitable, value-added markets.
In the absence of critical supporting functions such as infrastructure, service provision and access to funding, farmers struggle to transform from subsistence and small-scale farming to sustainable commercial farming,” he said.
Maziya stated that some of the major contributors to these challenges were the low economies of scale, lack of awareness to markets demands, inadequate technical expertise on agronomic practices and quality of produce required, as well as poor infrastructure leading to high production costs.
The CEO said that SLMP was implemented under the ministry of agriculture and its objective was to enhance food and nutrition security and incomes among smallholder producer families, through diversified agricultural production and market linkages. “The ultimate goal is to contribute to national poverty reduction.
The Eswatini Water and Agriculture Development Enterprise (ESWADE) are commissioned for the project implementation and the market-led production component is coordinated by National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBoard),” he said.
Value Chain
Maziya mentioned that a well-coordinated horticultural value chain production in Eswatini had a potential strengthening market linkages and opportunities for horticulture farmers, Farmer compliance to trading opportunities, trade agreements and opportunities for exporters and establish the obstacles to self-sustaining agribusiness in Eswatini, which hinders the commercialisation of agriculture for farmers.
He stated that the expected outcomes of the innovation platform included the identification of different marketing channels (local and export) available to smallholder farmers, identified different means of addressing production and market challenges, identified market opportunities and new innovations for improved marketing and the understanding of existing trade agreements and opportunities for local exporters.
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