The Lilongwe District Council Agribusiness Office has advised farmers from Traditional Authority (TA) Chadza in the district to consider forming groups such as clubs and cooperatives.
Lilongwe District Agribusiness Officer Brenda Mwagomba was speaking at Chikanga Primary School in the district, where 45 tobacco farmer members of Tama Farmers Trust from around Msozi Area were being drilled on how to form cooperatives.
Mwagomba encouraged the participants to proceed with their intention to establish a cooperative as the area has none.
“Government has stopped focusing on single farmer trainings but farmers in groups such as clubs or cooperatives. We would like the farmers from TA Chadza to benefit from national grants such as Agricultural Commercialisation (Agcom) Project just like others are doing,” she said.
Ministry of Trade Cooperatives Development Officer Janet Mtengezo drilled the farmers on how to form cooperatives upon request by the farmers after undergoing a financial literacy training organised by Tama Farmers Trust.
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She said that it is a requirement by the Cooperatives Societies Act that farmers are first sensitised before they express interest in registering as a cooperative.
“A cooperative is made up of 10 members at a minimum and must be from a radius of 20 kilometers. It is after this sensitisation meeting that you must express your intent to register with the ministry in writing after which five-day training would be arranged,” she said.
Tama Farmers Trust leader for Chadza Zone Rosemary Joviala said her organisation provided a skills training in social dialogue.
During the interface, the farmers admitted that the area still has tenancy labour but that they would start transitioning following the training.
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Mlimi Wozindikira Address Project leader Sam Kalimba appealed to the farmers to take heed of all the lessons learnt and put them into practice.
The International Labour Organisation has partnered Tama Farmers Trust in its ongoing Addressing Work Deficits and Improving Access to Rights in Malawi’s Tobacco Sector (Address) Project, with funding from the government of Norway.
The project is being implemented in a number of TAs in Lilongwe, Mchinji and Kasungu and Mzimba.
