MBABANE (18.12.2025): The network of institutions committed to support the rollout of a major national push for food self sufficiency within three years is growing. The National Maize Corporation (NMC) this week signed the MoU with EWADE, committing to buy all the maize and beans produced by EWADE under its Smallholder Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project (SAPEMP).
SAPEMP is in the process of mobilizing 20,000 smallholder farmers nationwide to consolidate their smallholder plots into sustainable farms and embark on the cultivation of maize and beans as well as other crops and vegtables.
The target that has been set by the minister of agriculture is 110,000 mt of maize in 2026 and attain the 140,000 mt required to feed the country annually in 2027.
EWADE is mobilizing a range of partner institutions to provide required institutional support and create the enabling environment for successful commercial scale agriculture on communal land. Key to success, is ensuring effective local level governance systems that support communal land commercial farming; access to accrate timely weather information for agriculture adaptation strategies and access to markets for farm produce.
SAPEMP, launched by the Minister of Agriculture Mandla Tsawuka in March 2025 is an 8 year project supported by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and implemented by EWADE. Under this project the Government of Eswatini seeks energize the rural communities to contribute to wealth creation, food security and economic development.
EWADE CEO, Dr. Samson Sithole said strategic partnerships are a practical expression of SAPEMP’s vision and provide a framewor through which policy will translate into coordinated action that realizes tangible benefits for farmers, communities and the economy.
Strategic partnerships
He sad the challenges undermining smallholder farmers’ productivity including market access, climate resilience and knowledge gaps cannot be solved in isolation, saying by design, the SAPEMP project promotes integration of multi-stakeholder solutions.
Among the stakeholders required for successfil smallholder agriculture productivity includes the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development as well as the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and its Eswatini Environment Authority (EEA) who are key for weather early warning and forecasting.
EWADE signed a similar partnership with the National Marketing Board (NAMBoard) who are responsible for vegetable marketing.
NMC CEO Mavela Vilane urged partners to ensure that SAPEMP is a success, noting that the country has signed many agreements and secured funding aimed at achieving food sovereignty. “But since independence we have been fed by our neighbours. This project emphasises national productivity. In farming they say there are three important factors that a farmer must understand before proceeding to the field. First, you need genetics; second good management and third, good climate.”
“There is little we can do to manage nature because these crops must be out there in the field exposed to the vagaries of nature which can be hail or other disasters.”
“However there is a lot we can do with genetics. Two weeks or so at the NMC Maize Awards, we were very happy to see one farmer who produced 11 mt/ha. Yet another farmer who used the same seed variety only got 1 mt/ha. The difference here was management,” Mr. Vilane said.
“In partnerships that we are entering we need to understand that productivity is the potential of the genes that we plant. We must make sure to carefully manage our farms to ensure we get the best out of the field.
“As NMC, our vision is to be the catalyst of national grain sovereignty. You will note that we no longer refer to food security because food security says as long as you have money you can go to neighbours to buy food. Food sovereignty on the other hand says produce your own food within your own country. in this country we spend over E1.5 billion per year that is used to buy maize and beans.”
“Therefore projects such as SAPEMP aim at ensuring that that kind of money is retained inside the country and make emaSwati rich instead of farmers and workers of other countries. Food dependence on other countries exposes the country to other nations’ political whims. Since grains are the backbone of our national food sovereignty, it is vital that we take special care and ensure that we have sufficient food in storage because we saw how badly we were affected by a far away war between Russia and Ukrainne that caused us to go hungry here.”
NMC welcomes partnership
Vilane said NMC fully welcomed the partnership with the SAPEMP project as its objectives “are consistent with our own vision of ensuring that we effectively utilize external loans so that even if they remain to be burdens for our children, we make productive use of them and make sure that we attain our development objectives.
Food sovereignty has become a mantra since the wake-up call of Covid-19 which closed international borders and exposed food importing countries to starvation. Since 2022, the government has increased efforts in food production with results slowly begining to emerge. The 2025 harvest delivered 77,000mt of maize, up from 75 in 2024, marking a gradual upward improvement for the third consecutive harvest.
Grain production is severely undermined by the small size of average smallholder plots that are commonly less than a hactare.
Under rainfed conditions, the average yield per hectare for successful farmers on communal land is 3 tonnes. With timely planting, adequate fertilization, good rains, and effective management, farmers are able to produce as high as 7mt/ha. The productivity winner in the 2025 NMC maize awards the top farmer produced 11 mt/ha.
If each of the estimated 20,000 SAPEMP farmers were to produce at least 5 tonnes per hectare of maize, the country will be well on its way to achieving its desired food sovereignty for the first time since independence.
Jm/today/18.12.2025