Cassava farmer |
Cassava is grown by
35 percent of the small-scale farmers in Zambia, contributing to 38% of
Zambia's total human consumption requirements. It is a staple food for
at least 30% of the population and a source of energy, proteins and
vitamins A, B1, B2 and C.
Winnie who got her
Physiotherapy diploma from Zambia 's Evelyn Hone College in 1982 and
worked for government until 1988, now prides in not only farming cassava
but adding value to the crop which is viewed by most urban Zambians as
"food from the street".
She found her
desire to venture into, marketing, processing, packaging and supplying
of local Zambian foods after she came back from the United Kingdom where
she had worked from 2002 to 2012.
With an initial
capital of 20 thousand Kwacha (about 2 thousand united states dollars),
Winnie started growing her passion which she brands "Nazya foods". One
of the major foods that have advanced her brand is cassava.
She is now among
the few that have penetrated the cassava market in Zambia and has
engaged other women from different parts of the country to grow the
crop. These women then then sell her both the leaves and the tuber which
she supplies to one of the chain stores in Zambia.
Winnie says every
two weeks she supplies 20 bags of 50 kilograms each of cassava flour and
300 bags of 400 grams each of cassava leaves to Game stores in Lusaka.
In addition, she also has a contract to supply 200 kilograms of cassava
floor across five Pick and Pay stores on a weekly basis in Lusaka.
"Even though I have
a turnover of at least 193 thousand Kwacha every month (about 19 000
USD), I regret that accessing funding to expand my business is a
challenge. I have never accessed any form of funding because of the
conditionality tied to borrowing money," she says.
She is proud that
she has managed to bring a product viewed as "street food" to shops for
middle class people. She however, feels she still needs to improve the
packaging and presentation of the product.
"My dream is to run
a purely local Zambian food store and also create a window for export. I
know that by doing so, I will be empowering more women farmers and also
creating employment for many youths at the same time contributing to
food security in the country."
Winnie is not the only one passionate about exploring the "gold" that cassava can offer.
Training
She is happy to be
among 150 women who have since been trained in cassava seed
multiplication at the Mount Makalu Research Center in Lusaka by the
Zambia Federation of Association of women in Business (ZFAWIB). The
association has seen the need to train the women in cassava growing so
that they tap into the value chain opportunities that the crop presents.
ZFAWIB Chief
Executive Officer, Maureen Sumbwe, says women want to contribute to the
commercialization of cassava as a cash crop which is why they have
decided to work closely with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA) through the Federation of National Association of Women
in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (FEMCOM).
COMESA launched the
cassava cluster programme in 2011 to enhance economic growth in the
region and promote value addition. The programme is currently being
implemented in at least seven countries.
Ms. Sumbwe says
more women are earmarked for training throughout the country, noting
that from 150 women that have been trained in cassava seed growing
between November 2016 and January 2017, 20 were drawn from Kitwe on the
Copper Belt while the rest were from Lusaka.
"The training of
the 150 women makes ZFAWIB have the largest number of certified cassava
seed growers in the country. The target is to recruit at least 24
thousand women every year for the next three years," notes Ms. Sumbwe.
Ms. Sumbwe says
apart from acquiring skills and knowledge on cassava seed growing,
ZFAWIB has spent 30 thousand Kwacha on buying seed from Chitambo
district in Central province which has been planted on a 12-hectare
piece of land for the 2016 -2017 farming season. She has explained that
once the target of training women has been met and seed has been
multiplied, it will be easy to explore the full value chain and feed
into the industry.
"The initiative
will not only address issues of food security but will also empower
women and create employment while in the long term meet the demand for
cassava products in the country through a well-established value chain,"
says Ms. Sumbwe.
Senior Research
fellow at the Zambia Institute for Policy Research and Analysis Ceaser
Cheelo states that local cassava farmers, who are mostly women, have to
step up and produce in mass if they are to realize the value chain
dream.
"Cassava flour
importation has the potential to depress local farmers noting that
production was significantly larger than the national requirement
between 2004 and 2013 but reduced over 2014 to 2016," says Mr. Cheelo.
This local
depression could be attributed to the country's sadden increase in its
total cassava imports from around USD 2,700 in 2012 to USD 41,000 in
2013.
Food security
Ministry of
Commerce Permanent Secretary Ms. Kayula Siame, says government is
committed to ensuring food security and diversification of the country's
exports and it is through initiatives such as the cassava value chain
that this will be achieved.
"The Zambia
government through the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission in 2017
lunched a programme worth K8 million aimed at supporting women and youth
in the cassava value chain while a further 1.2 million USD will be
given out as loans to stakeholders in the Cassava value chain", Ms.
Siame says.
She explains that
one of the objectives under the cassava value chain project is to
increase income for farmers and rural employment.
"The CEEC is
implementing the skills development and entrepreneurship project. The
goal is to contribute to job creation, promotion of gender equality and
poverty reduction supporting in particular women and youth. Over 17 000
direct jobs are expected to be created under the cassava value chain,"
notes Ms. Siame.
According to
research done by the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute in
2014 dubbed "opportunities and challenges of the Cassava sector in
Zambia", low cassava yield at farm level, and the low use of improved
varieties among farmers, coupled with lack of a well-developed market
for the crop, are among the major challenges in cassava production.
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