…As Vulematfuba farmer company makes E400,000 in first harvest
BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
NDZEVANE – Eswatini Water and Agriculture Development Enterprise (EWADE) continues to facilitate the transformation of lives at scale in the Kingdom.
The most recent project under EWADE has been the EWADE Lower Usuthu Irrigation Project (LUSIP) II, which has already benefited hundreds of Emaswati in the Lubombo region.
Under LUSIP II, the objective is the sustained improvement in the standard of living of the target population: through sustained environmental health, and commercialised smallholder farming (infrastructure development, policy and institutional development).
EWADE Social Facilitation Team Leader, Nonhlanhla Mazibuko, revealed that EWADE capacitates the farmers far beyond helping them to consolidate their SNL land.
“We train them on the formation of entities, as well as training on land rights and succession,” she added.
She further revealed that they also teach families about strategic wealth distribution, providing ways for child-headed families to be responsibly represented in the management of their dividends.
The EWADE Social Facilitation Team leader also emphasized that they make sure that the project is designed to benefit the local residents the most, in all the components of the project.
The EWADE Agriculture Development Officer, Zwelethu Dlamini, explained that the LUSIP II has the following three components to it:
- Main Conveyance System – This involves the extension of the main canal and construction of the Matata Canal, which is approximately 30 Kilometres in length. This component has been funded to the tune of E850 Million by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
- Secondary Distribution System – This component consisted of the construction of approximately 70 Kilometres of pipelines, and was funded by the European Investment Bank (EIP). This was completed in 2022 and currently serves a total of 5,750 hectares of land.
- On-Farm Development – this final component involves the tertiary distribution of irrigation systems to the actual farms. It currently serves the Ngcamphalala and Matsenjwa chiefdoms among others.
One of the farms which benefit from the projects is Vulematfuba, which is a company owned by 118 farmers. Vulematfuba is just one of the 28 companies which were registered to benefit from LUSIP II.
Currently, Vulematfuba has made over E400,000 in revenue from bananas since its inception less than a year ago. Each of the 118 members has been able to receive dividends of at least E10,000 each to start with.
These benefits of the LUSIP II project are significant gains to the achievements of LUSIP I, where over E1.8 billion was generated in revenue, and over E240 million was paid out to members as dividends. The farmer companies also contributed E276 million in taxes.
Currently, 2,059 shareholders are part of the 28 different farmer companies under LUSIP.
