By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
INVESTMENTS to promote a sustainable green economy that supports the growth of the smallholder farmers will be scaled up by the Community Market for Conservation (COMACO).
COMACO and Government, are therefore gearing up for investments to establish the infrastructure, technologies, personnel, value-addition and market relationships to take the smallholder farmers to the next level, says COMACO Communications Manager, George Sichinga.
Mr Sichinga explained that this was been done through the new Green Economy and Environment Ministry.
A green economy intends to reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment.
He indicated that through its model, COMACO boosts a self-financing, sustainable, long term remedy to rural poverty and related social-environmental costs estimated at over US$20 million annually.
He pointed out that there were significant cross cutting economic returns to other sector interests such as tourism, agriculture, food retail and forestry.
Mr Sichinga said the carbon market voluntary market was projected at more than US$5 million per annum.
“As COMACO, we serve the long-term national interests of conservation – investing in soils, forests and wildlife against harmful, short-sighted practices that erode the potential for Zambia’s vision for a vibrant, profitable green economy.
“This serves the long-term, inter-generational aspirations of small-scale farmers and the nation as a whole,” Mr Sichinga said.
He said nine chiefdoms had been paid for reduced carbon emissions of 755,030 tonnes from 2013 to 2017.
“Over 40 million agro forestry trees have been planted annually with an average of 2,000 trees per hectare, contributing to 84,000 tonnes of sustainable biomass for cooking, a near 100 per cent reduction in need for inorganic fertilizer, a two to three-fold increase in crop yields, and a significant increase in mineral nutrient uptake in food crops,” Mr Sichinga explained.
He said they had managed to achieve a 0.8 per cent reduction in deforestation in 1.5 million hectares of community-managed forests.
Mr Sichinga said with average annual savings of US$50 per hectare in Eastern Province alone was recorded.
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