INCOME MARKETS
COMACO's trading center, called the Conservation Farmer Wildlife Producer Trading Center, offers rural communities living around protected areas access to high paying markets and a range of services to help farmers bulk and sell their commodities. This was never the case before COMACO. Moreover, the trading centre is a limited company with ownership shares held by the same communities that produce goods sold to the trading centre. This provides greater guarantees that the trading center will favor the interests and needs of the producer, provided the producer is compliant with efforts to help conserve local natural resources. The map to the left shows the trading links between the trading centre and local trading depots distributed around national parks and national forests. Substations are located at critical points to economize on storage and transport costs. COMACO is now in the process of extending this model to two new trading centre with an expanded set of trading links to depots around other protected areas in Zambia, namely in Mambwe and and Luangwa Districts.
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Market prices and income represent the bottom line for households participating in
COMACO. Since the inception of COMACO, producer prices have increased
substantially for the four main commodities the trading centre currently promotes: rice,
chickens, honey and groundnuts. Soybeans will be an additional market crop COMACO
will support in 2005 and for the first time, farmer now have a viable alternative to cotton.
Much of this crop diversification was undertaken by COMACO through an intensive effort to support farmers with better farming skills and key inputs, such as new self-pollinating seed varieties and farming implements. This support is provided only to registered farmer groups committed to cooperating with the conservation of their natural resources by following the guidelines laid down by COMACO. These inputs are carefully distributed through the local trading depots. Collaborating partners, most especially Food and Agricultural Organization and Program Against Malnutrition have made these inputs available to COMACO to help ensure they reach the most needy and deserving families.
The impact on household income depends on the number of households able to produce
a surplus and whether these same households are food secure. COMACO does not
promote market at the expense of a families food security and compliance to food
security as precondition to trade with COMACO is monitored by community trainers and
COMACO extension staff. In 2004 approximately 2000 households traded with the
trading centre and this figure will steadily grow as more households become food secure and better farmers to take advantage of the fair market prices COMACO offers.
