By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –
GOVERNMENT, through the Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme (SAPP), will spend US$10.4 million to increase output of small-scale producers by 2017.
So far the Government has spent $15 million to reach about 24,000 small-scale agricultural households.
SAPP is an agribusiness development programme of the Government which is jointly supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at a total cost of $25.4 million.
IFAD provided a loan of $20.2 million and the Government contributed $1.5 million towards the programme.
SAPP programme manager Kwibisa Liywalii said this in an interview at the 90th Agricultural and Commercial Show in Lusaka, which was held under the theme ‘Managing Environment for growth’.
“The programme has a total funding of about US$25.4 million. IFAD brought on the table $20.2 million, with Government about $1.5 million and the private sector pushing in approximately $1.9 million,” he said.
Mr Liywalii said the programme started in 2010 and would come to an end in 2017.
This is aimed at increasing the volume and value of agribusinesses based on the output of small-scale producers.
Mr Liywalii said the programme was expected to assist up to 30, 000 small-scale agricultural households across the country.
The programme will increase the income levels of 30,000 poor rural households involved in the production, value addition and trade of agricultural commodities.
Mr Liywalii said the Swedish and Finnish governments had also provided a grant of $1.8 million towards implementation of the programme.
He said it was important for farmers to start running farming as a business, adding that they would continue to provide a market for smallholder farmers.
“We focus on areas in the country with comparative advantages in terms of production and marketing for selected commodities. We are focusing on small livestock, beef, mixed beans, groundnuts and cassava in all the 10 provinces,” he said.
The next sets of commodities are aquaculture, cassava and rice.
Mr Liywalii said SAPP also had a matching grant facility amounting to $6.5 million for purposes of promoting agricultural commercialisation.
The grants are used to encourage strategic investments aimed at scaling up existing agribusiness activities and for developing new products and markets.