By CEASAR MBEWE
GOVERNMENT through the District Agriculture Coordinators office in Samfya district in Luapula province in partnership with Voluntary Service Overseas project spearheaded by Standard Chartered Foundation has embarked on training 122 farmers in entrepreneurship skill.
Speaking to National Agriculture information Services (NAIS) Youth Engagement Advisor Musonda Bwalya said the aim of the Project dubbed “Enhancing Youth Entrepreneurship and Employability” (EYEE) is to ensure that young women and persons living with disabilities are included in the process of development in rural areas.
Ms Bwalya said 60% of these young people are women and 15% are person’s living with disabilities.
“Apart from that we have engaged the Ministry of Agriculture in Samfya to train these young people in practical skills like vegetable production and agroecological ways of growing several crops for sale,” Ms Bwalya said.
Speaking on behalf of the District Agricultural Coordinators office, Agriculture Officer Jonathan Banda said the training is aimed at equipping farmers with the necessary information and skills to take vegetable production seriously so that they can have extra income.
“The idea is that we want to make sure that we tackle poverty at household level with this training; We hope that at the end of the training farmers can take vegetable production seriously to earn some money,” Mr Banda said.
One of the farmers Edison Kaluba, who is being trained, was excited at this good initiative because it will transform their lives.
“We are happy with the training and to government through the DACOs office, because this will improve our lives,” Mr said.
Another farmer Emily Bwalya said, “All I can say is that I’m really grateful to the organisers and government for this as it will help us a lot especially when it comes to reducing costs of living.”
Ms Emily Bwalya said the training is aimed at helping them to tackle poverty at household level for the betterment of their lives. – NAIS.
