By CAESAR MBEWE
GOVERNMENT has embarked on training 122 farmers in entrepreneurship skills in Samfya.
The training is being facilitated by the District Agricultural Coordinators’ (DACO) office in the district in partnership with Voluntary Service Overseas project spearheaded by Standard Chartered Foundation.
In an interview, 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.
She said 60 percent of these young people are women and 15 percent are person’s living with disabilities.
“Apart from that we have engaged ministry of agriculture here in Samfya to train these young people in practical skills like vegetable production and Agro-ecological 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 levels 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, Mr Edison Kaluba who is taking the training said the training initiative was transforming their lives.
“We are happy with the training and to Government through the DACOs office , because this will improve our lives,” Mr Kaluba said.
Another farmer, Ms Emily Bwalya said the training is aimed at helping them to tackle poverty at household level for the betterment of their lives.
“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 Bwalya said. – NAIS.
