By MILDRED KATONGO and JANE MWANSA  –
THE Government has appealed to traditional leaders to consider allocating more than 100 hectares of land to each cooperative in their respective chiefdoms.
Gender Permanent Secretary Edwidge Mutale said the Government had embarked on a programme to empower cooperatives with agricultural equipment, hence the need for chiefs to provide land.

MUTALE

Ms Mutale said when she paid a courtesy call on her Copperbelt counterpart, Elias Kamanga, that the Government had embarked on a programme to empower women with equipment to enhance farming activities.
She was in the province to hand over tractors, tillers and combine harvesters to more than 188 cooperatives in Luanshya, Masaiti and Mpongwe.
“We have embarked on a programme to equip women with equipment like tractors, tillers and combine harvesters to help cooperatives enhance the farming activities. To do so, we are requesting for land from traditional leaders who are the custodians of land, at least the minimum of 100 hectares for each cooperative in their chiefdoms,” she said.
Ms Mutale said access to production factors such as land and training had bypassed the women, hence the Government’s initiative to come up with a programme to enhance development.
The Government has realised that the use of new equipment would help increase agricultural productivity.
Ms Mutale urged the women to take up decision-making positions in cooperatives and learn management skills, build capacity and financial management.
Mr Kamanga said the province was ready to support women’s activities and ensure they contributed to the economy through agriculture.
Meanwhile, the ministry has handed over three tractors and four tillers to four chiefdoms in North-Western Province to enhance agricultural productivity.
Ms Mutale said the farming equipment, which was distributed in Zambezi and Ikeleng’e districts, was
meant for improving the agriculture sector.
She commended traditional leaders in Ikeleng’e and Nyakuleng’a for taking the lead in promoting women’s participation in agriculture and other projects that could effectively contribute to economic development.
Senior Chief Ndungu received two tillers and one tractor, Chieftainess Nyakuleng’a received two tillers, while Chieftainess Ikeleng’e and Chief Mpidi got one tractor each.
North-Western Province Permanent Secretary Ephraim Mateyo commended the Ministry of Gender for distributing farming equipment to the four chiefdoms as this would enhance agricultural productivity in the province.