Chifunda Community Sees a Better Future with COMACO

The Chifunda community in the Luangwa Valley wasn’t always a farming success story. For a long time, lack of good markets for crops and poor agricultural skills have caused the Chifunda community to struggle economically. Local families were forced into bad natural resources practices, such as poaching and charcoal burning, to obtain basic household needs. COMACO has helped change this community for the better.

“We are really pleased with the COMACO intervention strategies in our area," says Mr. Lakupya Zimba, the Community Resource Board (CRB) chairperson. Local farmers now have a reliable cash buyer in COMACO, to whom they can sell their surplus grain. Unscrupulous freelance buyers – locally known as “briefcase buyers”- who offer poor prices and cheap goods instead of cash are now being turned away as farmers recognize the benefits of the COMACO program. These benefits go beyond earning cash for grain. Farmers also learn improved farming techniques, water retention skills and added livelihood skills such as carpentry, which can provide income during the dry season, when farming is difficult or impossible.

The success story can be seen in the numbers. The average crop yield has greatly improved during recent seasons by approximately 140 – 190 kilos per farmer. At current prices, this means that the average farmer, while still saving 30% of his crop for family consumption, could now earn as much as $500 and in exceptional cases, farmers are earning over $2000. This success reflects the efforts of COMACO in several key programs.

One key contribution is the COMACO revolving seed loan program, which focuses on crops used for income and food security, such as rice and groundnuts. COMACO lends high-yield seeds to farmers, who pay back by returning seeds from their harvest. This returned high-yield seed is then loaned to other farmers, and the process grows. To date, this program has supported more than 250 farmers in the Chifunda community. Another important element of success is the introduction of drought resistant crops such as cassava, sorghum and drought-resistant maize variety MMV 400, to help improve food security. Thanks to COMACO, the Chifunda community has also seen the establishment of a reliable, local communication system in the form of HF radios that have been provided to all COMACO outreach offices. Through these radios, information can now be shared from the farm to the COMACO trading centre in real time. COMACO can collect valuable data such as local rainfall and elephant damage, and respond accordingly.

COMACO introduced a community-based tourism bush camp in Chifunda a few years ago as a recognition to their contribution to wildlife conservation. Called the Chfunda It’s Wild! bushcamp, its revenue is projected to more than double this year and will likely reach $8000. The bush camp near the Chifunda community has employed 8 local residents who have undergone intensive basic hotel management skills to help them work effectively in manning the community bush camp. As the Chifunda community welcomes internation tourists to their area and to stay at their own community-owned bushcamp, so to has the community’s commitment to police the area against fires that degrade the areas aesthetics. “It is really remarkable how much of a change has taken in place in the reduction of fires since the community bushcamp came into operation,” Mr. Zimba commented.

“The efforts of the program have had positive conservation results such as good local policies and attitudes on natural resource management”, adds Mr. Zimba. “The program has been most successful in targeting destructive wildlife poachers through its transformation program, which has helped reduce wild life threats in our area”, he further observed. “I can hereby confirm and am ready to brag about it to other people living in the GMAs, that ‘Poaching is a problem of the past in our area and wildlife numbers are steadily increasing”, he finally added.