LUSIP PAYOUT GETS HIGH FIVE

MBABANE – The LUSIP rollout has been progressive and impressive.  This is the view held by African Development Bank (AfDB) executive directors, who paid a visit to Lubovane Dam and other parts of the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP) as part of their visit to the kingdom which ended yesterday.

Executive Director David Stevenson said it was encouraging to note that the copious amounts of money that had been invested into both phases of the LUSIP had helped in the improvement of agricultural commercialisation. AfDB was one of the core funders of LUSIP which costs over E3 billion together with the Kuwait Fund and the Government of Eswatini among others. 
“We are very impressed with the successful rollout of the LUSIP programme.

Returns

“The farmers’ returns are testimony to the fact that it has served its purpose of improving agriculture and the livelihood of Eswatini citizens,” said Stevenson.
He said they hoped more yield would be produced by the farmers who benefited from the programme in order to maximise on the effect of AfDB funding among others regional and international bodies.

Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said they were grateful that AFDB found it viable to inject capital into the LUSIP programme. He also commended AfDB for the support received by the country not only towards agriculture but to infrastructure and policy formulation as well.

“In future, we want to ensure that even businesses benefit from the AfDB since it has become evident that they greatly help in terms of assuring positive development,” said Rijkenberg.     
LUSIP paid out shareholders allowances totaling E76 million during the 2017/18 financial year.
In the annual report issued by Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (ESWADE) Chairman of the Board of Directors Mkhululi Dlamini for the 2017/18 financial year, it was explained that this reflected 60 per cent increase from the previous year’s payout of E47 million.

The LUSIP payout showed a 135 per cent increase over last year’s shareholders’ allowances, injecting a further E41 million into the project development area’s economy.  It was also mentioned that a total of E59.9 million was remitted in taxes by farmer companies. This represented a 63 per cent increase from the previous period.

Transforming

The objective of LUSIP, according to ESWADE, was to alleviate poverty in the project area by transforming the existing subsistence farmers into commercial farmers on irrigated lands producing both food and cash crops (principally sugar cane).
It was also meant to support the development and utilisation of the water resources of the Lower Usuthu River through provision of irrigation infrastructure to enable smallholder farmers to intensify and diversify their agricultural production building on existing market linkages with the private sector.

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