SIPHOFANENI (9 February 2025): His Majesty has declared food sovereignty one of the key national priorities under the Year of Transformation. In response, ESWADE believe that “Yes We Can”, and promise to deliver an additional 30,000 tonnes of maize in 2026 harvest.
EWADE’s Chief Executive Dr. Samson Sithole said in response to His Majesty’s call, they are dedicating 10,000 ha of land to maize and bean cultivation targeting a major boost to the 2025/26 grain harvest year. While some of the land will be on rainfed agriculture areas, the bulk will be new smallholder irrigated land that comes on stream this maize cultivation year.
“EWADE acknowledges His Majesty’s call for self-sufficiency in food production,” said Dr. Sithole. “We are unwavering in our commitment to providing farmers with the modern irrigation infrastructure and technical support required to boost food production in Eswatini.”
Dr. Sithole following His Majesty’s Speech from the Throne at the opening of Parliament last week, they noted the King’s directives and are aligning their strategic initiatives with the action points the King highlighted especially in food security and youth employment creation.
A central theme of His Majesty’s address was the urgent need to bolster food security and reduce Eswatini’s reliance on imported foods. “Food sovereignty remains a priority for the Kingdom of Eswatini. The country is aiming at producing all the food that it eats since availability of financial resources does not guarantee a provision of food,” the King said.
His Majesty noted that in 2024 the country fell short of meeting the annual national maize consumption target of 140,000 metric tonnes due to the heat waves and challenged farmers to take advantage of various food production incentive schemes such as the subsidised tractor hire services to improve next year’s harvest.
The grain contribution is happily welcomed by the National Maize Corporation that manage the national grain storage for both maize and beans. NMC are partners in the Hambubuye Project. “Every additional hectare under cultivation goes a long way towards meeting our food security targets. We actively encourage all farmers with fallow land to come forward,” .is greatly welcomed,” responded NMC CEO Mavela Vilane.
Mr. Vilane underlined the importance of the EWADE contribution, noting that the national inclement weather patterns have progressively forced the national maize harvest to slip downward over the past three years,
Dr. Sithole emphasized that they are adapting EWADE initiatives to align with His Majesty’s vision and will focus their flagship agricultural programs such as the Commercial Maize Project – Hamba Ubuye for enhanced food security. The priority drive is to expand maize cultivation to 10,000 hectares, with the target of producing 30,000 metric tonnes of maize in the 2026 harvest year.
The Hamba Ubuye project for both beans and maize that is implemented on rain-fed national food baskets regions in the highveld and wet middleveld has been vulnerable to the growing effects of climate change. By the close of the 2023/24 farming season, the project had already contributed 2,162.02 tonnes of maize to Eswatini’s granary, with 210 farmers cultivating 1,820.25 hectares across the four regions.
Completion of the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP ll) that brings farm irrigation has opened significant new maize and beans crop cultivation in previously drought-scorched areas promises to significantly improve the country’s food security potential.
Since 2023, LUSIP II Farmer Companies have cultivated a total of 138 hectares of maize and beans, with 72.3 hectares dedicated to maize and 65 hectares to beans. This collective effort has already yielded an impressive 195.92 tons of maize and 43 tons.
By supporting the growth of these staple crops, Dr. Sithole noted, EWADE is not only boosting local production but also fostering greater resilience in Eswatini’s agricultural sector.
Youth Job Creation
EWADE is also responding to His Majesty’s critical concern for youth employment. Dr. Sithole says they are in the process of expanding youth empowerment opportunities in agricultural entrepreneurship. EWADE will be launching a Youth Empowerment Project in April 2025, ploughing a total investment of E1.073 billion to provide hands-on training for 15,000 young men and women in commercial integrated agriculture. The training will focus on annually training out-of-school youth and unemployed graduates, aged 18 – 35. The vision is for the youth to create 10,000 new jobs in agriculture and agrobusiness each year.
This project will roll out in 5 training centres at Gesawu in the Northern Hhohho; at the Lowveld Farmers Training Centre in Lubomb; at the Nhlangano Farmer Training Centre; at the Malkerns Research Station and at Mpisi Farm. The training will provide hands-on learning, fostering innovation and self-employment.
Young people will also benefit from the Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Marketing Project (SAPEMP) which Dr. Sithole says will also launch in April 2025. SAPEMP is a transformative initiative with a budget of E851 million that will empower smallholder farmers with tools, resources, and market access to succeed in a competitive and climate-resilient environments.
Similarly, SAPEMP will seek to enhance capacity of over 17,000 smallholder farmers in all four regions. The project focus will be on vulnerable communities especially in the southeast Lubombo Region and seek to create about 2,300 jobs. It is planned that 50 per cent of these roles will be men, 40 per cent women and 10 per cent for youth. This initiative seeks to promote rural employment and economic resilience.
Dr. Sithole says these EWADE expects to create an additional 13,827 new jobs by the 2025/26 financial year. Among new job-generating opportunities include activities associated with the construction of the Mpakeni Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Project (MNWAP) that involves the ongoing construction of a dam, water conveyance infrastructure and on-farm irrigation works. About 146 jobs new jobs will be crated in the ongoing construction of the Mpakeni Dam while 500 jobs will be created in the E2 billion Main Conveyance System that will transfer water from Mpakeni to through project communities in the Sigwe, Maloma and as far as St Phillips.
About 881 new jobs will be created in the expanded irrigation infrastructure and production capacity under LUSIP II.
