By JUDITH NAMUTOWE? –

PRESIDENT Michael Sata’s policy on road development through the Link Zambia 8000 has created an opportunity for cooperatives to manage to conduct business smoothly, Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) has observed.
ZCF director general James Chirwa said the Link Zambia 8,000 had directly benefited the cooperative movement in Zambia as it had opened up the rural areas to the agricultural market.
Mr Chirwa said the road network was critical for the transportation of various agricultural produce by the cooperatives.
He said in an interview yesterday that the road network had been one of the major challenges the cooperative movement had faced for a long time as smallholder farmers had not been able to smoothly access the market.
Mr Chirwa said the road project as undertaken under the late President Sata, would further increase productivity of smallholder farmers.
“So for us, the Link Zambia 8000 has created an opportunity for the movement to do business around the country, because it has opened up rural areas which were previously locked up,” he said.
Mr Chirwa said the cooperative movement would remember President Sata for his vision to improve performance in the agricultural sector.
The cooperative movement has undergone years of challenges, but that when President Sata came into office, he took keen interest in ensure that cooperatives were revived.
“And I should think that the President understood the benefit of having a strong and vibrant cooperative movement in the country. He was always talking about providing an avenue that would uplift living standards of the people,” he said.
“He believed that his vision of bettering people’s standard can only be achieved through a strong cooperative movement”.
Mr Chirwa said that for the time after years of inactivity due to limited financing, President Sata authorised the release of grants for cooperative to build capacity.
He said Mr Sata authorised the release of K15 million which the cooperatives were to receive in 2015.?“We have already received K5 million so far for capacity building and that is why ZCF and the provincial union are able to take tours of their provinces, because their capacities  have been revived and it is because of the vision of President Sata,” he said.