A group of enterprising farmers, operating under the banner “Chigunyu Farmers Cooperative” is reaping rewards after venturing into groundnuts farming.
The cooperative, based in Mpherembe in Mzimba comprise of 215 members.
The cooperative’s chairperson, Samson Ng’oma has indicated that the farmers decided to come together and form the cooperative 6 years ago as one way of maximising rewards from farming.
“We have been farming for a long time individually without getting necessary rewards and that’s when we decided to change our approach and operate as a group,” he said.
He said upon forming the association, rewards increased as the group managed to acquire more land for farming.
“Apart from earning individual profits, we also managed to purchase land at Muyowe where we established a huge farmland,” said Ng’oma.
Chigunyu Farmers Cooperative’s exploits have not gone unnoticed as the Agricultural Commercialisation (AGCOM-2) has jumped in to further boost it’s dealings.
“Indeed, AGCOM came in few months ago and awarded us a matching grant of K326 million which sparked plans to establish a mega-farm,” he added.
Currently, the cooperative has already built a k65 million warehouse, purchased a tractor, groundnut shelling, grading and plucking machines to further boost production and logistics capacity.
Meanwhile, AGCOM country director Dr Ted Nankhumwa has hailed Chigunyu Farmers Cooperative’s exploits, describing them as exemplary.
“What this cooperative has achieved over the years is massive and that’s why AGCOM awarded it this grant to further propel it forward,” he said.
