Environment Africa programmes director Innocent Hongere said the group that is working in conjunction with other NGOs such as Practical Action was also looking to help link farmers to markets where their products are in demand.
Most villagers across the country have no direct access to markets, relying on middlemen who buy their produce for resale to retailers or directly to consumers in urban areas.
But some middlemen often dupe the villagers into giving away their commodities at below market value only for the unscrupulous traders to rake in huge profits when they deliver the farm produce to consumers in urban areas.
Hongere said: “As NGOs, we want to build capacity within the small scale farmers and improve production and link farmers to market. We provide monitoring, evaluation and documentation.”
A local farmer, Moses Murahwa, said the assistance being rendered by Environment Africa was critical to improving food security here, and called for similar assistance to be extended to farmers elsewhere across the country in order to help revive the agriculture sector.
“I would like to urge other farmers to fully support such noble initiatives by these NGOs so that we can we can rejuvenate our collapsed agricultural sector,” said Murahwa.
Another farmer Nathan Murapa said: “We really appreciate the service being rendered by these NGOs. I urge my fellow farmers to support such programmes.”
Post published in: News