The Farmers’ Clubs program is designed and implemented in many countries by members of Humana People to People, like DAPP Zambia.

1. WFP Executive Director expresses support to new agriculture program for
farmers in Pemba district in Zambia
The World Food Program Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin paid a visit to Kanchomba
South Agriculture Camp Extension in Pemba district of Southern Province on Saturday
16 January. Kanchomba South Agriculture Camp is receiving rural farmers’ extension
training support from WFP, FAO and DAPP. Southern Province is a low rainfall area as
it receives 800mm per year or less. The area is drought-prone and makes it difficult for
the many rural subsistence farmers’ to barely achieve food security as they practice
traditional farming which does not help them in increasing yield per area planted. The
Farmers’ Clubs program is aiming to respond to climate change and other factors in
fighting food insecurity.
The Executive Director’s came for a field assessment of the World Food Program (WFP)
funded activities as well as to familiarize with the outcome of the R4 program that
started in 2015. WFP partnered with DAPP Zambia to implement the R4 program
targeting 500 rural small scale farmers, who are organized in 10 Farmers’ Clubs to
support each other to increase the farming outputs.
The R4 program is a Rural Resilience Initiative Program with innovative responses that
enable vulnerable rural households and communities to increase their resilience by
addressing the causes of food and income insecurity in the context of increasing
climate risks. The Initiative is built on a pioneering model that combines four risk
management strategies, which include Disaster Risk Reduction, Risk Transfer
(including weather-index insurance), as well as Risk Reserves and Risk Taking (access
to savings, credit, etc.). Rural households are not only provided with basic protection

2. from seasonal and recurrent shocks, but can also access a set of climate and financial
services that empower them to become resilient over time and to escape poverty and
insecurity.
During the field visit, the Executive Director toured the field of one lead farmer, Mr
Bishop Mweene of Sikwale Farmers’ Clubs and was impressed by the way conservation
agriculture was being practiced to maintain moisture in the soil despite the dry spell
that has hit that region. She was told how the farmer has increased the food and
nutrition security and income level for his family with visible signs of better built houses
with iron sheets and the field itself having a modest crop.
She also toured the weather centre where a satellite rain gauge is used to calculate
rains in a radius of 20 km with the verification of 4 other manual rain gauge centers
planted strategically around the district managed by the Farmers’ Clubs. The Executive
Director was then shown a low cost on-farm storage method where small metal and
plastic silos are used to seal off oxygen and prevent the dry produce from being
infected by pests.

3. In her closing remarks the Executive Director affirmed her support for the program and
expressed the wish to see it scaled up to more farmers in Zambia.
The Farmers’ Clubs program is designed and implemented in many countries by
members of Humana People to People, like DAPP Zambia.