50,000 FARMERS AND VALUE CHAIN ACTORS TO BENEFIT FROM CGIAR INITIATIVE,UU

The Ukama Ustwai-UU initiative which aims at addressing food and nutrition security risks that arise from an over-reliance on maize, in a climate resilient, water-secure and socially inclusive manner, says it is targeting to reach 50 thousand farmers by 2024 in its catchment areas with the view to transform the practices of maize-based to more diversified systems through mechanisation, irrigation and improved crop management and conservation agriculture. 

The Ukama Ustwai is a Consultative Group on  International Agriculture Research-CGIAR initiative which is being led by the International International Water Management Institute-IWMI in collaboration with regional and national partners including Agriculture Consultative Forum- ACF and Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis  Network-FANRPAN.

It is focusing on twelve countries in East and Southern Africa namely, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It currently runs for three years between 2022 and 2024.

Speaking during a  media briefing in Lusaka-Zambia IWMI Country representative, Dr Inga Jacobs -Mata said in addition to the 50 thousand farmers, the initiative intends to reach one million farmers in the same year in terms of access to digital advisory services and agricultural risk management products and services that support a sustainable resilient response to climate risks.

"We believe there is a good opportunity in Zambia to work with agri-business that provide digital solutions, early warning systems, seasonal focus, climate and marketing information and to strengthen smallholder farmer resilience to get them into a network where digital information can be provided to farmers," Dr Jacobs -Mata said.

Dr Jacobs -Mata said Ukama Ustwai is focusing on how smart agriculture can be scaled up which she said implies that small-scale farmers and agri-business should focus on implementing small-scale mechanization and how they can improve crop management strategies including how they can improve irrigation 

She indicated that the organization is looking forward to working with its partners in Zambia for the next three years.

"We are here in Zambia doing a policy dialogue with our partners to identify some of the policy priorities that we can focus on and implement here in Zambia. This is in addition to identifying some of the barriers that prevent small-scale farmers and agri-business from diversifying and from sustainably intensifying their cropping  practices"

"We were privileged to have the Ministry of Agriculture with us this morning who highlighted what his government priorities in terms of the agriculture sector but also challenged us to put science into seeds and to really focus on moving policy to practice and indeed that was the focus of the discussion today. So looking at the fact that Zambia's policy landscape is well developed the challenge is in implementation. So how do we ensure that resources are provided to small-scale farmers who make up the bulk of maize producers in Zambia at the moment, how do we ensure access to markets and finance and how do we focus on Private Public Partnerships-PPP and help strengthen the regulatory framework to enable those PPP in agri-business. So we work with our stakeholders in unlocking some of these barriers whether it's taxation and partnership development."

Speaking at the same event FANRPAN Director of Policy Research and Analysis Sithembile Mwamakamba said there is a need to provide a market for new crops being promoted in order to promote crop diversification.

"[The reason] why diversification has been a song for a long time and has not happened,I think farmers need to see that what you are telling them to move to can be profitable. They have grown maize for a long time and they know they are .....going to sell. So if you want to introduce new crops you need to make sure that you also show that there is a market for that crop and I think one of the important things is that if you are going to promote diversification you should demonstrate that there is a market to absorb the new crop you are promoting." she said.

She said," this is where I see the beauty of  Ukama Ustwai,it is not just in Zambia,it is in 12 other countries in Southern and East Africa and already through the project there is that opportunity to facilitate linkages for opening up markets and making sure that farmers when they improve their production and they want to sell that their places to be able to absorb[ their produce]

She added "we are a regional organization that works to facilitate dialogue between civil society and the government and between researchers as well. So we are proud to be partners in the Ukama Ustawi-UU initiative together with colleagues from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research-CGIAR. Our role in the project really is to convene dialogues which are very central to the project and that they are part of stakeholders' engagement for the project to be able to deliver on its objectives. What we do is that we provide a platform that allows for open dialogue between states and non-state actors to be able to identify the country's priorities and challenges so that we are able to co-develop solutions together.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Consultative Forum Executive Director Masiye Nawiko noted that over the years the government has created a market for maize which has resulted in a lot of farmers going into maize production.

Mr Nawiko however noted with gratitude that the government has recognized the need to invest resources into important value chain commodities and develop each specific value chain. 

"A good example is the Soybeans program. If you look at what is being offered under the Farmer Input Support Program-FISP, the government has allocated some space there for farmers to access inputs for Soybeans and we have seen that over the past 4 years a lot of our farmers have gone into Soybeans production and to the argument that produce what we did basically under another program, the Africa program , we developed a study just to analyze the value chains along the line of Soybeans and to that effect with other stakeholders we developed a value chain framework where we want to commercialize commodity of Soybeans. So what we are saying is that you provide the marker farmers will respond to the market. A good example we have seen over the years is farmers going into Soybeans because the market is quite huge not only in Zambia but also regionally as well as in Asia," he said.