Video – You can see their grateful thanks in word and song in this video when ShareAfricaZambia delivered maize to the farmers and their families at the Assembly in Mchacha.
Category: Farming
Drought devastating crops
The drought hit crops at a critical time. Maize and groundnuts have suffered most with soya and sunflower doing better but still affected. It will have a serious effect on our farmers and will cause increased hardship across the country. There will be more details in our next Newsletter which we hope to publish soon.
First Prize at Agri Show
Share Africa Zambia (SAZ) exhibited at the provincial agriculture show held on 8th to 9th July 2022, The show had the theme “Innovation through Technology” ( Technology Transforms Business) and SAZ exhibited under the category of “best out-grower” company in eastern province.
SAZ attracted good interest and won the first prize of best out-grower in eastern province.This reflected the work of SAZ introducing mechanization and automation technology to small holder farmers in typical rural areas. The permanent secretary visited and appreciated the role played by SAZ in helping to increase production levels of rural smallholder farmers as well as for creating jobs to women and youths, for instance, during sorting and grading activities.
Harvest Underway
The harvest is well underway. A number of harvesters have been donated which will speed up the work and ensure that more of the grain is collected. SAZ collects the grain from the small farmers we support. The farmers are paid directly and the produce is collected in our store sheds before being sold on in bigger consignments.
Farming Operation Grows
The 2021 season has finished with most farmers recording a bumper harvest.
Preparations for the 2022 season have begun. Almost double the amount of seed has been distributed to all farmers on the Outgrowers scheme which should translate into a significant increase in yields.
New early maturing varieties of groundnuts are being introduced to try and combat the risk of poor rainfalls later in the season
Sunflower and maize seed has also been distributed to allow farmer to rotate the legume crops with other cash crops.
Overall we expect the scheme to expand by 35% in 2022.
To support the increase we are providing more oxen, more harvesters and more storage space.
A 2021 final report will be issued next month. This will measure the overall impact on farmer livelihoods and the benefits of the SAZ programme in general.