WHAT IS CSMA

The project, funded by the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), seeks to increase support for the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) which will have a greater inclination towards sustainable markets. Focus at present is on two areas, that is Ngwempisi in the Manzini region, and Ntfonjeni in the Hhohho region. In both areas, there are farmers who are either organized into schemes with individual plots, or working as independent individual farmers. At Ngwempisi, for instance, there is Intamakuphila scheme whereas Emvulandlela scheme operates at Ntfonjeni. The two schemes are the major focus of the project. The farmers in these areas focus mainly on vegetable growing, and their produce is targeted for sale to NAMBoard in the main.

PROJECT BENEFICIARIES

The project is targeting two schemes Intamakuphila Farmer Irrigation Scheme with 44 farmer members and Mavulandlela with 27 farmer members.

Other beneficiaries in the project:

Labourers in Mavulandlela FIS- 63

Labourers in Intamakuphila FIS- 56

The community members in Mavulandlela and Intamakuphila

PROJECT OVERALL GOAL

The CSMA Project contributes to sustainable food security and poverty alleviation in the Kingdom of Eswatini. It aims to achieve this by improving rural livelihood incomes for 750 smallholder farmers producing fresh fruits and vegetables benefitting 500 people.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

Setting up business-oriented governance of irrigation schemes.

Improving irrigation from furrow to water saving technologies.

Improving cold chain management systems between a point of production and formal markets.

Increasing accessibility to CSA technologies and CSA mechanized equipment to semi-and fully commercial farmers.

Improving access to finance for non-bankable smallholder producers.