NGO donates flour processing plant

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RELIEF agency COSV Zimbabwe is today expected to donate a fully equipped farmhouse to 2 000 small grain farmers in Jambezi, Matabeleland North.

RELIEF agency COSV Zimbabwe is today expected to donate a fully equipped farmhouse to 2 000 small grain farmers in Jambezi, Matabeleland North.

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The farm house, which will benefit local farmers, was erected to end a four-year livelihood diversification project.

COSV said the farmhouse contains equipment to process small grains into flour suitable to be sold in the supermarkets, ensuring sustainability to the results so far achieved.

The project was funded by the European Union.

The building is meant to serve beneficiaries in the area to independently start their business activities as small grain flour farmers and producers.

In a statement, COSV said it was delighted by the successful implementation of the project in the area, as it worked to provide services to the local community.

“COSV is delighted by the fantastic achievements and successful results of this project along all those years of implementation and most of all for the aid provided to thousands of farmers and families in need,” read the statement.

The project sought to deal with food and nutrition insecurity challenges faced by about 10 000 vulnerable households in two districts of Matabeleland North province, Hwange and Binga.

Through their intervention, COSV believes that the move will help households in the areas to broaden their economic activities away from mono-culture maize production and negative livelihood coping mechanisms by seeking a more diversified range of food and income sources.

As part of COSV operations in the area, local farmers succeeded in establishing community-based seed producers able to cultivate the seed needed (millet and sorghum) by the local farmers.

COSV also promoted the building of “road shops” for beneficiaries working in three irrigation schemes — Chentali, Lukosi in Hwange and Nzovunde in Binga.

The shops represent a good opportunity to market and promote the vegetables cultivated in such schemes. COSV has been working in Zimbabwe since 1982.