Humanity Africa has a vision to minimise or alleviate food security issues in Mkushi Zambia, through a holistic approach of developing social enterprises that will do the following:
- Actively support farmers to train on crop rotation, encourage agricultural cooperatives and support them to find methods of finance in order to become supply chain partners
- Provide farmers the option to become employed at our social enterprises. In many instances, farmers will choose to be both, which is something we are keen to develop within the community as a safety net for those who are vulnerable to climate and socio-economic shocks like ill health, crop loss, etc.
Our 2020-2022 flagship projects involve:
- Poultry production (layers, hens and eggs)
- Fish farming (tilapia, bream, catfish)
- Horticulture
- Honey production
- Herbal products (moringa, boabab, aloe vera)
Our Plan!
Having come a long way since November 2014, Humanity Africa is on the way of being the first ever holistic social enterprise that also invests heavily in an out-growers scheme. Currently with its network of over 1000 farmers in Mkushi, Lusemfwa, Musofu, Itala, Musakamba, Masansa, and Chipata, we are actively developing our projects on the ground.
Our social enterprise will be a full fledged production and processing facility that will mobilise rural smallholders to organise themselves to train, receive credit and start their own enterprises, where we play the main role of an available market.
Our overall processing ambitions include:
- Hatchery for broilers and layers
- Abattoir for processing poultry
- Maize processing units
- Moringa processing units (teas, powders, capsules, energy bars)
- Fish processing units
- Bio-digestive
In November 2014 the organisation invested £15,000 to take a group of volunteers to Mkushi to carry out a baseline survey. Focus Group Discussions allowed us to understand the real need of communities in Zambia. You can read the survey here. This helped us focus on what the real issues were.
Humanity Africa aims to assist farmers to set up small scale poultry farms and livestock projects that will enable them to diversify their income and simultaneously improve the nutritional status of their families.
Within a year, we will have worked with 300 farmers in Mkushi to give them hands-on technical training to become self-sufficient in one or all of the following:
(1) Improved agricultural practices
(2) Poultry rearing
(3) Livestock rearing including cows, goats, sheep
By supporting these farmers we 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. By working with just 300 farmers, we will directly reach 1500 people and over 3000 community members.
Our ambition is to continue to build on the number of farmers we reach and within 5 years, aim to reach 1500 farmers, 75000 community members and the overall population of Mkushi.
The overall budget of the project for a year is £119,000.