By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, October 24, Mana: CML Farm Enterprise on Wednesday donated 240 goats to smallholder farming households at Katenje, Traditional Authority Santhe in Kasungu District to build their livelihood resilience and improve their economic status.

Founder and Director of the Agronomic and Horticultural Crops off-taker Chifundo Chiphazi said the communities in the area have for a long time concentrated on crop farming; ignoring livestock, which she said, has great potential to boost their economic status.

“We wanted to encourage our farmers whom we work with to also consider goat farming as a business and not just concentrate on crop farming as we have been doing.

“The idea is that we want to uplift the livelihoods of the rural communities. It’s also an incentive to the farmers that we have been working with over the years,” Chiphazi said.

She said as an off-taker in the horticulture and agronomic value chain operating in the area, the entity supports the farmers in various ways including provision of farm inputs and training in business management.

“So we want to incentivize our relationship with farmers by providing these goats which we have distributed to the first cohort of the beneficiaries.

“The expectation is that this initiative will also boost crop farming. The manure from goats will make us go fully organic,” she said.

At least 48 households received five goats each in a pass-on arrangement that will benefit 200 families.

Group Village Simphasi expressed excitement with the initiative saying it will boost the community’s economic status and help families to support their children’s education.

She appealed beneficiaries to take care of the livestock so that those on the waiting list can also benefit in fulfillment of the project’s objective.

Valued at K14.7 million, the goats were sourced from Mentors International, an organization which focuses on business training for smallholder farmers to lift them from poverty to sustainable self-reliance.

Samson Moyo, a mentor at the organization said the goats were supplied under the institution’s Giving Machine Project with financial assistance from the Church of Jesus for the Latter Day Saints.

“We will supply a total of 400 goats in two of the district’s extension planning areas.

“Our expectation is very positive because the farmers have been mentored and will operate as a business so we expect to see a huge impact on the economic status of the beneficiary households,” Moyo said.