WOMAN FARMER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION ENTERS JUDGING PHASE

MBABANE – The Woman Farmer of the Year Competition has entered the judging stage where field officers inspect the produce of the said farmers.

About 170 women registered for the competition this year and 152 were selected. The judging phase will take a period of two weeks and winners would be announced at the award ceremony, at a communicated date, this month. Woman Farmer Foundation field officer Sanele Mtsetfwa, said the Woman Farmer of the Year Competition compete in two categories which was the youth and adult and also in both livestock production and crop production. “This year, the competition is as the end of October and there are eighteen categories in both livestock and crop production in both the youth and the adults. “The preparation of the competition started in the beginning of the year, when forms were distributed to different rural development areas and agricultural input shops across Eswatini for farmers who have interest on the competition to join the competition,” he said.

Mtsetfwa added that they had 170 entrances in both the youth and the adults who are entering the competition. He said after collection of forms, a team of selected judges would visit the entrant homesteads to access their enterprises and livelihoods.

enterprise

He said the criteria used for assessment is based on provided parameters for each enterprise distributed like 80 per cent quality of the main enterprise, 15 per cent home management and five per cent leadership and community service. This year, the judging began yesterday and it was to take a period of two weeks. “As Woman Farmer Foundation, we are alerting all the farmers who joined the competition that the judges will be visiting their places for judging and we are encouraging them to be available in their homes and areas of production for the next two weeks so that the judges can be able to do the judging exercise smoothly,” he added.

The Woman Farmer Foundation, as an organiation that supports women, its vision is to identify, recognise and develop a corps of “model” women and youth farmers across Eswatini who will inspire and capacitate their communities to mitigate the effects of rural poverty. So far it has achieved developing over 3 000 women (36 years and above) and youth (18-35years) across Eswatini from subsistence farming to intermediate farming, and to commercial level of farming through the Woman Farmer of the Year Competition. The competition provides women farmers with incentives such as inputs, access, skills development, networking and market identification and linkage for produce. This has improved livelihoods, increased the food basket and uplifted the economy under the Agricultural sector of Eswatini.

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