By JAMES
KUNDA-
THE Lumwana Mine in Solwezi has invested US$400,000 into a four-year community agriculture programme expected to benefit 1,000 small-scale farmers in North-Western Province.
Community Relations superintendent Harrington Kanema said in Ndola that under the initiative, Lumwana provides $100,000 to small-scale farmers annually for capacity building to boost productivity.
Mr Kanema was speaking in Ndola during a plenary session at the just-ended third Zambia Alternative Mining Indaba under the theme, “our minerals, our future, putting local communities first”.
“The main focus of this programme is to empower small-scale farmers with funding for them to access equipment to support farming both in the crop and livestock sectors.
“Since the programme started, we have witnessed growth in dairy farming, rain-fed wheat growing, banana farming and the growing of Irish potatoes,” he said.
Mr Kanema said the company had also supported other schemes such as the promotion of irrigation farming and market access through a revolving fund that was in the last few years has grown from $250,000 to $500,000.
“The company started the Agric Food Innovation Programme with an investment of $250,000 to provide loans through a micro-financing institution to support local farmers.
The micro-finance company also contributes their own share to this package which also seeks to link the farmers to entities that would provide ready market for products such as vegetables and milk,” he said.