The ZNFU's mission is to promote and protect the interest of members as farmers, individuals corporation/companies and other organisations involved in the business of farming in order to achieve sustainable economic and social development.
Mr Ndambo spoke about the work of the ZNFU and the issues concerning Zambia's food security in relation to the needs and productivity of its members. Mr Ndambo explained that the current situation is not so much about food security as food insecurity. The situation is never constant and there is always a fear of shortage. Mr Ndambo stressed it is essential to work closely with the government on behalf of all farmers to inform and enhance communication so that consistent policies can be developed that will encourage and motivate farmers to be productive and continue to sustain food security.
He also stressed the importance of working closely with his members and keeping communication lines open via meetings, local press, radio and the union's own magazine, The Zambian Farmer. Communication with the commercial farmer and the small farmer is very different. Commercial farmers are often contacted by email while the small scale farmer will need to be contacted in person and a huge amount of investment has been spent to keep small holders informed and encouraged.
In Africa the human factor is enormously important in the development of agriculture because of the lack of skills and knowledge of modern farming techniques and technologies. Training and mentoring is a very necessary part of the developmental process.
On such example is the story of Medalido Makombe who has been struggling for seven years to find spares for his boom sprayer. Fortunately, his managed to order spares from India and get them delivered to Makombe farms, about 45 Kilometres south of Kabwe. Medalido is among the few privileged farmers that have been browsing the Internet to get information on various issues affecting them as farmers.
The Farmers Internet Café, hosted by the Kabwe Farmers Association was established by the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), through support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USA’s department of Agriculture through the Education Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) programme.
The basis of these projects, observes Mr Ndambo, was to link the mother body with affiliates at district level while at the same time providing access to information to individual union members.
Mr. Ndambo said: “We initially wanted to build the capacity of our members in this new technology so that they can be writing e-mails to us directly if they wished and also inquire about the various services that the ZNFU is offering to the members.”
“Our members have benefited greatly,” he said: “For instance, farmers were able to compare the prices of Tobacco in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia on the Internet and through this network they were able to negotiate for a better price.”
When I asked Mr Ndambo about the differences in terms of concerns and need between the commercial and small farmer Mr Ndambo pointed out that their concerns were fundamentally the same such as better seed, soil, and prices. They both need access to markets and credit. The rising costs of key inputs such as diesel, farm equipment, raw materials, electricity etc. has continued to erode the viability of farming while the status of classification of agriculture for value added tax purposes remain punitive. Mr Ndambo argues that all agriculture products should be VAT zero rated so that the Vat on all the key inputs linked directly to production should be recovered. Government strategies need to improve and support all farmers to create a sustainable prosperous and productive agricultural sector that will play a huge part in eliminating the fear of food shortage.
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