Africa-Press – Lesotho. At the multi-sectorial awarding ceremony on Friday, 50 horticulture and livestock farm assurers in the green value chains and local supplier development programme were awarded certificates.
The stakeholders included the United Nations Development Progamme (UNDP), Standard Lesotho Bank (SLB), Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) and Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS). This awards ceremony follows the completion of a series of training and mentorship activities facilitated by GlobalGAP.
According to the joined statement by the stakeholders, , the graduates began their journey in October 2021 when the Green Value Chain, (GVC) project and Local Supplier Development Programme (LSDP) launched the first training for local Farm Assurers, a programme intended to capacitate Basotho farmers with skills to improve farming products that conform to international standards.
“This marks an important milestone in building local capacity and introducing good agricultural practices and standards in horticulture and livestock sub-sectors in the country,” noted the statement.
MAFS Principal Secretary (PS) Adv. ‘Mole Kumalo, speaking at the ceremony, said agriculture is one of those initiatives that play an important role in the economy of this country.
Kumalo further said these days, young women and men have formed businesses out of agriculture and they are selling their produce locally. “We as the Ministry, we are ready to assist in any possible way.
These 50 graduates need to know that the real work has begun and we are here to help,” he said. He said they need to go out there and form programmes on how they are going to improve agriculture in different aspects such as horticulture, livestock and many others.
MAFS Director of Marketing Lekhooe Makhate said the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) II has prioritized commercial agriculture as one of the productive sectors that can contribute significantly to economic growth and job creation.
Makhate added that farm assurers train and consult farmers to achieve certification, perform pre-audit assessments to help producers towards actual audits, connect farmers with Global GAP approved certification bodies, and support producers during the official audit procedure. It also assists farmers to access markets and link them with selected customers in the supply chain.
“GVC and LSDP have come at an opportune time to help build capacity and resilience of farmers to actively participate in food systems through adoption of good agricultural practices, food standards and usage of digital and green technologies to enable them to improve and increase their production to meet requirements,” he said.
Standard Lesotho Bank Chief Executive (CE) Anton Nicolaisen said the bank first initiated the Local Supplier Development Project (LSDP) back in 2018 as part of their wider social responsibility activities geared towards a comprehensive programme that combines various initiatives as well as their products, tailored to meet the needs of the economy.
He said the programme seeks to address the challenges of unemployment, lack of finance for small and medium enterprises, financial inclusion for unbanked and under banked sectors of society as well as to close capacity challenges that face the entrepreneurial sector in Lesotho in general.
“As a country that lives through agriculture, we strongly believe that with this worthwhile project, we are in the journey to provide solutions that will transform subsistence farming to commercial farming, and it is only a matter of time before our shareholders and the nation as a whole starts to reap the rewards of this investment,” he said.
One of the graduates, Amohelang Hatase said they are now proudly called Global GAP registered trainers and their general understanding is that, the genesis of commercial farming starts with farm assurers.
She added that they are obliged to work at a very humble farm level where they are supposed to coach, hand hold and train farmers down there on the implementation and adherence to good agriculture practices.
“Therefore we would like to assure commitment towards the ongoing LSDP implementation,” she said, saying they promise to advance the agricultural economic policy of this government.
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