Text by Mangiza Chirwa
Since 2020, the FSLs in Lusaka and Chongwe have been working to increase the participation of farmers and traders in the food system by building their capacity in various aspects. The project believed that putting local and marginalized citizens at the center of finding solutions to food challenges is key to building citizen-driven processes and locally formulated new approaches that can radically improve inclusive and sustainable solutions.
FSL worked with traders in Lusaka, giving them more capacity on how to improve food safety, trade more diverse foods by increasing their capital, engage with local government leaders, etc. Farmers in Chongwe were given more capacity on sustainable production, value addition, how to participate in other agricultural value chains that are more profitable, and so on. However, despite these capacity building sessions, it was clear that as individual farmers or traders, they had little influence to increase their benefits from the food chain. So the project organised the direct beneficiaries into two cooperatives. The one for farmers, called “Healthy Food Producers Multi-purpose cooperative”, aims to bring farmers together to pool their produce and supply local grocery stores, and to advocate for organic farming with local authorities. The one for traders, called “Together we can win Cooperative”, aims to provide cheap financing solutions to its members through traditional savings groups called “Chilimba”. This has helped many of the traders in the group to access finance for their businesses in more affordable groups. The group also uses the cooperative as an organised group that can petition local authorities to address the challenges faced by traders.
Cooperative models have been identified as an important means of organising and linking marginalised groups such as smallholder farmers and traders in evolving food systems. Through these cooperatives, the FSLs will also be able to access local funding, called Constituency Development Funds, to address the immediate challenges facing the two groups.
