Musika MD favors smallholder agric for poverty reduction

Musika Managing Director Reuben Banda has observed that the accelerated growth in smallholder agriculture is key to reducing poverty in Zambia, and that this in turn hinges on both marketing and productivity.

Mr.Banda says Musika will therefore continue to supporting Private Investment in the smallholder market in order to demonstrate the business potential that exist in the smallholder market.

Speaking during the commissioning of the US$100,000 Sylva Food Solutions processing plant in Lusaka today, Mr. Banda has called on Sylva Food Solutions to scale up its operations even beyond Musika’s support so that more smallholder farmers can benefit from the business and graduate out of poverty.

Mr. Banda says Musika has provided Sylva Food Solutions with equipment worth 46, 500 United States dollars to scale up its operations to match the increased supply of fruits and vegetables that will be collected from the bulking centers.

Mr. Banda says this is aimed at equipping over 2, 000 smallholder farmers with technical knowledge and training to help them improve their yields, quality of their fruit and vegetable crop, and learn how to preserve them before taking them to the market.

And Sylva Food Solutions Executive Director Hector Banda says the company has so far trained 17, 521 smallholder farmers in all the ten provinces of which 97 percent are women.

He says the company will continue to work hard to ensure that it supplements government’s efforts in uplifting the livelihood of the rural poor.