A new breed of farm entrepreneur for a new era
Sibeso Simasiku used to be a primary-school teacher but, yearning for a challenge, she switched to farming and became one of thousands of Zambians helped by an FAO project designed to increase food production and improve farm management.
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Entrepreneur Simasiku in the middle of her healthy field of maize near Kaoma, Zambia |
Although the Integrated Crop Management/Food Legume Project primarily distributes inputs to and trains small farmers through a network of 40 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), FAO is pleased to work with ambitious and industrious individuals like Ms Simasiku, who showed up unannounced at project headquarters in the national capital, Lusaka, to introduce herself and ask to take part.
The national project, funded by the Government of Zambia and the UN Development Programme, encourages cultivation of food legumes such as groundnuts (peanuts), soybean, cowpea and pigeon pea. These protein-rich crops are much needed in Zambia to combat a serious malnutrition problem, especially among children, and to steer agriculture away from a dangerous overdependence on a single crop - maize.
"I expanded into farming after the new government came in and I could sell at the price I wanted," said Ms Simasiku as she walked between fields of cowpeas deep in the countryside of Kaoma District, the bread basket of Western Province.
Small entrepreneurs like Ms Simasiku can be a powerful engine for growth in rural communities. Most are wealthy enough to own a truck both to transport produce to market and to search for inputs when they are scarce. But they are also willing and able to "rough it" in the bush for part of the year to supervise critical periods in the growing cycle and, since they are educated, they are in a better position to bring the latest knowledge and, it is hoped, some rigour to farm management.
FAO has been involved in promoting legume production since 1988, first in breeding varieties and identifying farming systems suitable to Zambia, and now, under the present project, in multiplying and distributing sufficient seeds, negotiating agreements with NGOs to provide village-level support and training farmers.
In Ms Simasiku's case, she was sold seed by the project and given ongoing advice on how to grow the crops. Now, where until very recently only brush and thorn trees grew, Ms Simasiku personally oversees 20 hectares of maize and two hectares each of cowpeas and groundnuts.
In addition, she provided cowpea seed, chemicals and other inputs to ten neighbours, who now each cultivate a hectare of the crop under an "outgrowers' scheme". They will retain some of the crop as seed, pay Ms Simasiku back in cowpea for her inputs and then sell the rest to her.
"The advantage of the outgrowers' scheme for me is that the farmers provide all the labour or else hire people to help," she said, standing next to Patrick Mimboela, a neighbour and first-time farmer who recently retired from his job with the local government. Mimboela grows a hectare and a half of cowpea for Simasiku. "I like this arrangement because there's less expenditure for me, especially on chemicals. I have no problem with labour, just capital," he said.
Zambia is a large, sparsely populated country - two-and-a-half times the size of Italy with a population of only eight million. It has many development problems to address such as how to increase food production for an exploding population and to improve education, health and physical infrastructure, not to mention environmental problems like drought. But shortage of land is generally not a problem; it is allocated freely by the local chief under customary tenure. As long as a farmer or his or her descendants continue to work a piece of land, he or she may use it free of rent or taxes.
Ms Simasiku's fields are bounded by virgin bush and as long as demand for her crops remains high she will continue to expand production. "The sky is the limit," she said, smiling.
8 March 1997
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