Andrew Phiri Benefits From COMACO Employment

Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) continues to offer support to rural communities throughout Zambia through its conservation and poverty reduction-based programs.

Through its Community Trading Centres (CTC), COMACO offers a market to various products under ‘Its wild’ label. These products include Honey, Groundnuts, Rice and Soya beans. In order to meet the market standards for these products, the CTC in Lundazi employs the hands of a number of local residents who do various tasks to ensure that the products are of high standard and are able to compete favorably on the Zambian market. Product enhancement includes grading of the raw material in preparation for processing and packaging.

The CTC operates by purchasing harvested crops at premium prices directly from farmers and then uses these crops to produce various products, including white polished or brown unpolished rice, honey, peanut butter, and Yummy soy. The production of the trademark it’s Wild! products takes place at the main CTC building located in Lundazi and requires a large number of people, for which CTC has employed more than 170 workers. Many opportunities are offered through employment of people for the production of It’s Wild! products This large-scale operation has provided many people with secure jobs throughout the Lundazi area. Among those benefiting from this initiative is Andrew Phiri.

Andrew Phiri, who popularly goes by the name ‘Zadeko’ is a 29 year-old resident of Dunda, a small village located about 3 km from the main Lundazi CTC building. He uses his tricycle to get to and from his home to work every day. He revealed that he acquired the tricycle with the help of a man he used to work with at Zgangani Kachinga Resource Center. This modified tricycle allows Andrew to power it with his arms. Andrew relies prominently on the tricycle because he does not have the use of his legs, which he lost to polio disease when he was young. The tricycle has been of tremendous help by providing him with a more reliable mode of transport; especially that he lives 3km away from work.

Prior to becoming an employee of CTC, Andrew worked for three years as a tailor, specializing in the making of doormats. A radio advertisement on Radio Chikaya for job openings at CTC, prompted him to seek a job at the CTC. The door opened for him and he was put on as a rice sorter employee, as well as a grader in March of 2007.

Since COMACO is an equal opportunity employer and does not segregate whether one is physically challenged or not, Andrew Phiri was able to land himself a job at the CTC as a rice grader.

He is one of over 100 rice graders, whose daily responsibilities include manually sorting out grains of rice in order to pick out all foreign particles. The total amount of rice he sorts through each day is then weighed and recorded. Every sorter is paid according to the total amount of rice he or she has graded per week. On average, each grader sorts about 100 kg of rice per week.

When asked about how becoming an employee of CTC has changed his life, Andrew says he no longer has to worry about how he is going to support his family, which has always been his big concern. “Through this job, I am able to buy clothes and food for my family,” revealed Phiri.

Phiri comes from a large family of 10 people, including three children of his own. He has no other source of income outside that of his job at CTC.

The monthly revenue he gets from the CTC as a rice grader is enough money to pay for rent and feed his family. When asked about his future plans, Andrew hopes to continue working with the CTC because it is a secure job, and he enjoys it. He also enjoys his work relationship with his colleagues. His co-workers describe him as dependable; and a hard worker. “ZADEKO is a very jovial man and always puts up a smile on his face,” disclosed one of his workmates.

The Lundazi CTC does local sales and raises an average of ZMK 3.5 Million ($972) from the sale of Its Wild products on a weekly basis. The trading centre ships out close to 6 tonnes of rice, 500jars of honey and 220 jars of peanut butter to Chipata monthly. Lusaka receives more of the consignment and this varies between 6-7 tonnes of rice, 320 jars of peanut butter and 300 to 500 jars of honey. These products are distributed to various stores in Lusaka including Shoprite and Spar and other towns in the country.

In the previous season, the CTC traded with more than 1,600 farmer group members. 500 individuals with various products traded with the CTC in different commodities. The CTC used 370 million Kwacha ($103,000) to purchase raw materials for processing and product enhancement.

With these developments, the CTC hopes to increase production of It’s Wild! products.