By Business Reporter

A COMMUNITY farmers group based at the boundary of Choma and Kalomo has appealed to the business houses to help it acquire processing equipment to process various agricultural produce in the area. 

Mutuchebe Community Initiative programmes coordinator, Lucky Choolwe said farmers in the area had started practising value-addition in some commodities, hence the request for processing equipment to supplement their efforts.

Mr Choolwe said in Choma the catchment area for Mutuchebe Community Initiative needed three modern mills to process maize into maize meal that would translate into an income of K35 million per month for the farmers group.

The farmer group also needed two types of modern equipment to process sunflower into cooking oil.

“This will translate into a monthly income of about K30 million for the farmers group,” he said.

Mr Choolwe said vegetable growing was an activity that had seen women in some areas survive without any help from their husbands.

He appealed to the International Fund for Agricultural Development to assist in the construction of a dam and an irrigation scheme for the local people in the area.

Most farmers in the area had been trained to practice commercial farming and on how to use the mobile phone to search for market information on different commodities through the Zambia National Farmers Union 4455 short message system market and trade information service.