KELLY NJOMBO, Lusaka
THE Private Enterprise Programme – Zambia (PEPZ) has partnered with other organisations to form a tripartite alliance of non-governmental organisations, private companies and government to provide support to fruit and vegetable farmers.
The members of the consortium who include Shoprite Freshmark, SABMiller, Mfinance and Musika, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve market access for fresh fruits and vegetable farmers, as well as increase smallholder farmers’ household income.
According to a statement availed to the Daily Mail on Thursday, PEPZ team leader Bayo Akindeinde said the MoU will promote the horticulture industry as a sub-sector in agriculture, and that it will also reduce poverty among smallholder farmers by improving the horticulture value chain to create jobs.
“In conjunction with our partners, we seek to reduce poverty through increasing horticulture production, thereby creating employment. This would ultimately increase household incomes and improve the standard of living,” he said during the signing ceremony at Cabinet office recently.
The MoU was signed in the presence of secretary to the cabinet Roland Msiska.
PEPZ will provide grants to farmers according to a pre-established set of criteria, and will also provide capacity building and technical expertise to farmers to equip them with the requisite knowledge to grow their produce at maximum efficiency.
PEPZ runs a business linkages programme that takes account of the findings of its extensive consultations with stakeholders and research to learn lessons from past and present business linkage initiatives in Zambia and internationally, and to identify the forces for change and key success factors.