By Salome Gangire

Neno, March 9, Mana: District Commissioner (DC) for Neno, Rosemary Nawasha has hailed Livelihood Improvement Programme (LIP) being implemented by Umodzi Consulting in the district for improving the livelihood of community members.

She said this, Friday when she visited Mlindi Cooperative at Magaleta Village during a field visit by the Agriculture Service Committee organised to appreciate the strides made by the programme in transforming the lives of people.

Umodzi Consulting is implementing LIP with funding from United States Africa Development Foundation (USADF) by working with cooperatives with the aim of improving the nutrition well-being of its members particularly those with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) conditions, as well as improving their social –economic and building resilience.

 “I am so impressed with what is happening here as people are growing different kinds of crops and rearing different kinds of animals which they use in their homes. They also sell 30 percent of the produce thereby achieving food security,” Nawasha said.

She therefore, asked them to replicate what they are learning at the cooperative in their homes so that they can have all the food groups they need in their lives and earn money for their livelihood.

Umodzi Consulting Director of Finance, Enerst Luhanga said through the programme they are working with farmer’s groups in different countries by providing grants to farmer’s cooperatives at different levels.

He said in Neno, the programme is targeting people with NCD like diabetes so that they should have access to nutritious food but also have excess to sale for them to have income in their homes.

“We are working with 14 cooperatives and they have received grants to implement their projects,” Luhanga said.

He added that the project has made positive impact in the district as beneficiaries have replicated the technologies they are learning at the demonstration site in their homes by having backyard gardens where they grow various vegetables and fruits and they are also rearing livestock’s.

Luhanga added that 4,417 participants are benefiting from the project in the district of which 2,268 are NCD patients representing 51 percent and of these 291 are diabetic patient with type 1 and 2.

Chairperson for Mlindi Cooperative James Mazingaliwa said the benefits that members are getting from the project are remarkable, as they also get skills and later replicate in their homes apart from also growing crops for selling and home use.

“Most of us now have backyard gardens and no longer buy vegetables thanks to the project. We have also planted various fruit trees our group received at the cooperative,” he said.

Some of technologies the cooperatives are using includes green house and drip irrigation to grow different types of crops.