Humanity Africa an NGO registered in Zambia and a Community Interest Company (CIC) in the United Kingdom is investing in a Tomato and Fruit processing plant in Zambia’s Mkushi area with an investment of £500,000 in the project.
And Zambia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom His Excellency Mr. Muyeba Chikonde has said agriculture has been placed as the priority driver of the economy, adding that agriculture not only provides food and raw material but also employment opportunities across its value chain.
During a presentation at a Business networking event organised by the Zambian Business Club UK, held at the Zambia High Commission last week, Humanity Africa Chief Executive Officer Bhupinder Singh Baidwan said, “Apart from putting up the Tomato and Fruit processing plant, Humanity Africa is also putting up a health food processing plant for Nutri-Globe, which will produce Moringa and baobab based health food products for export as well as a Maize mill for maize flour.
The Zambia Business Club UK was formed on 16th October, 2016 with the aim of promoting business ventures of Zambian entrepreneurs and harness the power of the Diaspora to bring trade and innovation to Zambia.
Mr. Baidwan said the organisation has committed the investments in view of the growth of agriculture activities that were taking place in the Central Province of Zambia and works on the projects are expected to commence in 2018.
“We are going to be producing tinned tomatoes and fruits right in the heart of Mkushi while providing training to local farmers. We are also training farmers in Mkushi on how to dry and preserve fruits. We will be drying mangoes and pineapples. The dry mangoes and pineapples have the potential to pave way for export within Africa, the European Union and the United Kingdom. There is also a potential market in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola,” he said.
Mr. Baidwan said Humanity Africa has been in Zambia since 2014 supporting rural farmers in training and developing enterprises to make them self-reliant and become agents of change and that the organization is working to train local farmer.
He said the investments will see the company train more farmers and employ local people within Mkushi, 60 per cent of whom are women, with crop diversification, and improved irrigation methods in the face of climate change; farmers will be empowered to implement and share their technical training and knowledge at the grassroots level.
Mr. Baidwan explained that in order for Zambia to achieve sustainable development, every Zambian must have the courage to take the reigns of economic development into their own hands and that working with local farmers in Mkushi will ensure that household nutrition is improved, children are more likely to go to school and women are more empowered in household and business decision making.
And in an interview after the meeting High Commissioner Chikonde said with the fast growing population and high incidence of unemployment in African countries, the agriculture sector should provide more employment opportunities to the labour force.
The High Commissioner said the Humanity Africa projects have come at the right time when President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has called for total diversification of the economy from Copper dependency to promoting value addition through the establishment of projects such as the Mango processing facility in the Eastern Province and a Pineapple processing facility in North-western Province.
This is how they come.where is that tile making company which came with similar force? Amacinci!
Am alright with this if its linked to co-operatives but then again this factory will be located in Mkushi area!!
One of Lazy Lungu’s Fire Truck cost more than that whole Tomato Processing Plant…really sad!!
Mango juice?
The truth is that these can foods like fruit juice, or vegetables could put your health at risk. Instead of canned foods, go for foods stored in glass jars. Do not consume fruits, vegetables, soups, or grains in cans, you can simply buy the fresh ones.
Diseases caused by consuming canned foods
Cardiovascular disease (heart disease)
Kidney disease
Breast cancer
Obesity
Diabetes
Reproductive problems
Botulism-is a rare, but serious illness caused by Clostridium botulinum. The germ is found in soil and can survive, grow, and produce toxin in a sealed canned food. This toxin can affect your nerves, paralyze you and even cause death. A small taste of food containing this toxin can be deadly.
Skin and eye irritation
Nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea
Brain…
IT VERY NICE TO HEAR THAT THE FACTORY WILL BE IN A RURAL AREA RATHER THAN LUSAKA OR CB. FOOD PROCESSING FACTORIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN RURAL AREAS RATHER THAN IN BIG CITIES. THIS GIVES REAL LIFE TO RURAL DWELLERS AND QUICKLY DEVELOPS THOSE VILLAGES INTO MODERN VILLAGES OR TOWNS. THIS ALSO PREVENTS URBANISATION, ETC.
These are the kind of projects that have potential to uplift a number of people’s lives. Government must be in the fore-front of creating a pipeline of such people-centric projects particularly agro-based. Imagine how many projects you can create for rural groups with $42million. Imagine the number of people you’d lift out of poverty! but NO, our leaders would rather blow up such cash just for their transportation.
@Observer… iwe, we have touched this topic before. Thought we said it was the quality of leaders, but it is probably excellent you brought in up cause, repetion helps change mindsets.
Some of the leaders you have cannot even run their home budget. They get paid at work, straight kubiyaholo. Forgetting their home expenditure and improvements to uplift their children and wife. At the end of the day, no money cause they squandered it. What do they do next, they start eyeing on government coufers, looting even more to replace their salary they squandered and more biyaholo.
Now with so much time spent scheming how to loot and get drunk, which deprives the position they are holding, the capacity to plot economic development such as the fantastic one described above.
The only capacity…
[CON’T—]
The only capacity they are left with is buying mobile hospitals, fire tracks, dubious plots such as selex system integreti to repair a radar system, recently buying heavy construction plants that are not needed, companies that are neither registered with ZRA nor PACRA winning million dollar tenders… I can go on and on if challenged to do so on this one…
So all am saying is that we have capacity and resource to produce such fantastic investments described above a thousand times over. We have done it before with KK, more so with a lessser educated population than we have now and better still less corrupt.
It is quality of leadership!
I rest my case!
It is quality of leadership!
I rest my case!
If this was an IDC project I am sure its valuation of this £500K project would have come to £5 million!!
Still after 53 years independence depentend,when will you do things yourself??????????????????????
If they are buying a fire truck at $1 million that is valued by the insurance company at $250K pocketing the different…do you think such reckless people would sit down and sincerely budget for a $580K valued Tomato processing plant that would empower their people? No that is the job of foreigners
*…..$250K pocketing the difference….
Hazanya Hagain with jealousy like his cadres here! They are fighting a losing battle. With Zambia’s landscape changing due to massive developmental projects by the highly qualified yet underestimated in Namwala, the likelihood of a donki being voted into office is ZERO. And that is painful in Namwala.
WAKE UP ZAMBIANS! YOU DONT NEED BA-NSAMYA “Mwenyes” to show you how to make Mango, Lemon, Tomato, or Pineapple juice!
Nangu bufontini!!!!
They never wake up rather beg…….
A tomato is a fruit or a vegetable?
A tomato is a fruit when it is ripe and used as a fruit for direct consumption or for processing. While tomato is a vegetable when it is used in culinary purposes.