S3P EMPOWERS SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

By HAPPY MULOLANI

Over the years, efforts to prioritize the agriculture sector through the National Agriculture Policy and Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) have heightened, prompting the Government of Zambia to partner with development partners in order to contribute towards agriculture development.

One such partner is the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) which has co-financed a number of programmes to develop and support appropriate interventions meant to upscale smallholder farmers in different commodities of focus.

In light of this, IFAD and the Government of Zambia co-financed the Smallholder Productivity Promotion Programme (S3P) over a period of seven years, from December 9, 2011 to December 31, 2019. The programme’s mandate was to improve the income levels and food and nutrition security of poor rural households. These households were targeted on the premise of their dependence on agriculture and other agricultural related activities as their source of livelihood. The programme was implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, coupled with other government departments and service providers.

Its primary focus was to enable smallholder rural farmers increase production, productivity and sales of smallholder farmers. The programme also envisaged to promote sustainable smallholder productivity growth. Its other goal was to facilitate an enabling environment for productivity growth.

The programme targeted to assist 67,000 small-scale agricultural households during its duration. Its mandate was to achieve at least one of the following objectives by the time of its phase-out. First, increased household asset ownership. Second, increased savings in household savings; Third, reduction in incidences of malnutrition and ultimately increased food security (IFAD Report, 2011).

In all, the programme development objective was to contribute to increased agricultural production, productivity and sales of smallholder farmers in Luapula, Northern and Muchinga provinces.

At inception, the programme had four major commodities based on the cassava farming system. These are cassava, mixed beans, groundnuts and rice. But, after review and re-orientation of the programme, the commodity of focus was no longer limited to the four crops, rather co-opted soya beans.

Recently, a National S3P Phase-Out Conference held at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka announced that the programme was closing. The event drew its participants from the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Livestock staff, key stakeholders and players.

S3P Programme Manager Martin Liywalii disclosed that the financing agreement of the programme was valued at a cost $39.9 million United States.

Mr Liywalii highlighted that the agreement between the Government of Zambia and IFAD was signed on December 9, 2011.

“The programme was planned to end on 31^st December, 2017 but was extended by one year. This resulted in the programme being implemented for eight years and its financing closing on 31^st December, 2019,”he said.

Mr Liywalii explained that despite the programme targetting 60,000 beneficiary smallholder farming families, the number was later increased to 67,500 smallholder farming families. Interestingly, the programme exceeded its target and outreach recorded 72,000 smallholder farming families in 28 districts and 150 agricultural camps in three provinces of Zambia, namely; Northern, Muchinga, and Luapula provinces. He noted however that the 72,000 smallholder farm families have been subjected to a process of validation which is still on-going.

Agriculture Permanent Secretary Songowayo Zyambo said that government attaches great importance to boosting production levels in the agriculture sector.

Mr Zyambo noted that smallholder farmers needed adequate support in order to contribute towards increased agriculture production.

He advised that upcoming programmes needed to draw lessons from S3P’s interventions, challenges and positive strides. By so doing, the food security and nutrition security and income levels among the poor agricultural households will be sustainably improved.

A unique feature of S3P’s exit strategy is, calling upon key players, stakeholders and ministry staff to share lessons learnt, challenges and successes. Admittedly, these are a benchmark of how the programme fared in the past eight years. It is also these benchmarks that a proposed sustainability strategy can be adopted. This is premised on the understanding that if no proper mechanisms of sustainability are devised and enforced, continuity among smallholder farmers is unlikely.

In view of this, S3P Extension Specialist Micheal Chishimba explained that the Ministry of Agriculture, which was the main implementer partnered with other service providers which included Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) and Total Land Care (TLC). This Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach strengthened farmers’ ability to organize producers for bulking of production and marketing purposes. Besides, strengthening farmer linkages widened the range of households served.

The PPP approach comprising Ministry of Agriculture, TLC and COMACO allowed for more farmers to benefit from trainings during Farmer Field Schools.

Mr Chishimba revealed that the programme recorded 64,447 against a target of 30,000, with 49 percent female beneficiaries, which indicates increased female participation. However, this number is presently under validation by the Ministry of Agriculture.

He said that through the programme’s intervention, there is improved facilitation skills, with 233 staff imparted with skills. While, 1,689 lead farmers have been equipped with improved farmer field schools facilitation and 64,447 farmers with improved technical and business skills, of which 49 percent have been empowered.

A smallholder beneficiary farmer in Mbala, Elizabeth Nampasa appreciated S3Ps trainings conducted to three cooperative societies in the area. The trainings focused on entrepreneurship skills, leadership and business trainings.

“Prior to these trainings, the cooperatives in the area were stagnant and not viable, which is no longer the case now,” says Ms Nampasa.

She added that after undergoing these trainings, the cooperative societies came up with business plans which have since been actualized. This is meant to run their cooperatives as business entities in order to be sustainable and profitable.

This approach means as S3P phases out, both farmers and experts have gained skills to facilitate their agriculture enterprises through continued production, bulking and increase the volumes of sales, which is in line with the 7NDP’s goal of improved food security and nutrition and income.

 As S3P winds down, the programme has contributed towards building partnerships through the PPP approach among rural smallholder farmers aimed at strengthening capacity building, bulking and linkage to potential markets, which is key for sustainability.

It is prudent for the PPP approach to facilitate appropriate linkages in order to ensure continuity of the project ideals even after the programme phase-out, otherwise, encouraging farmers to increase their production is good but production in the absence of strong linkages, will not only be weak but futile. Thus, S3P’s exit strategy leaves room for other programmes to draw on their lessons learnt, challenges and successes.