The Ministry of Agriculture has hailed the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (Casa) programme, saying it brought agribusiness models that transformed poultry and aquiculture farmers.
The ministry’s director of animal health and livestock development Julius Chulu stressed this as the programme closed-out this week after six years of engagement with farmers’ groups from the two sectors.
Speaking at a programme close-out event in Lilongwe on Wednesday, Chulu said the programme has been successful in promoting smallholder farmers to become self-sustaining, an objective that had been failing without tailored technical and financial support.
Chulu said: “The Agribusiness models that Casa has brought to the smallholder poultry farmers and smallholder aquaculture farmers has tremendously improved their livelihoods.
“About 20 businesses are now thriving: They have bank accounts, once Casa goes, they can perpetuate their operations, they can live off their poultry and fisheries.”
According to him, the agribusiness models which included linking them to strategic supply chain markets and formalising their businesses by linking them to financial institutions has resulted in the birth of 20 stable cooperatives that will remain vibrant after Casa.
Casa team leader Steve Morris said they realised the two sectors’ potential in nutrition aspect, and to ensure existence of the products on the market, there was need to strengthen their supply chain value by transforming smallholder farmers into vibrant businesses.
“With poultry partners, for instance, Casa brought a structured, competitive and inclusive sector expansion through enhanced public and private investments in agri-SMEs and smallholder farmers to ensure increased production and supply of quality poultry through a structured supply chain,” Morris said.
In a separate interview, country director of Tac-Maz Sustainable Ventures, one of the implementing partners Thokozani Amanda Chimasula said the programme benefited thousands of smallholder farmers in the two value chains that have developed into stable players.
“There are 20 stand-alone businesses that have been created from the programme. I am confident that these businesses will survive because of the critical skills acquired through the six years of mentoring,” she said.
The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness is a UK government-funded programme and has supported 84 807 smallholder farmers in poultry and aquaculture value chains, 48 percent of them women, with investment worth £203 570 (about K450 million).
Since 2019, the programme, which has 27 partners, has been providing technical assistance and targeted grants to improve their capacity to implement sustainable, inclusive, and profitable business models within active, dynamic, supportive market system.
