Lusaka, Zambia/Africa – The Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) has commended government for rallying the private sector in its strategy to address climate change issues at this year’s United Nations Conference of Parties (COP27) in Egypt.

COMACO Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Dale Lewis, says Zambia’s multisectoral approach to deal with climate change will help the country benefit a wealth of solutions from both the government and the private sector.

Dr Lewis says this will help Zambia not only stand out among the other African countries but also help in transforming small-scale farmers’ livelihoods at the grassroots.

“The scale and mix of humanity to deal with the global climate threats is overwhelming.  The Ministry of Green Economy has done a great job in leading the Zambian delegation to engage in key negotiations that will offer long term solutions for Zambia. It is clear, lots of investment to decarbonize Africa, restore forests, and create sustainable farming systems is coming to the continent,” Dr Dale Lewis said.

COMACO is currently at the COP27 as part of the Zambia Delegation representatives where the company is this Saturday, 12th November, expected to give a presentation titled “Farmers, Carbon Markets, and A Model Scaling for Climate Solutions.”

Based on the key themes of COP27, among them agriculture, COMACO is promoting the adoption of farming practices that include creating value from their crop through the production of It’s Wild! products, keeping farmers sedentary so they do not have to clear forests, and helping reduce deforestation that is contributing to revenue benefits for the same communities from carbon sales.

COMACO, is a social enterprise that works with more than 230,000 small scale farmers in Zambia promoting agroforestry through the adoption of Gliricidia sepium, a fast growing, nitrogen-fixing tree that allows farmers to grow crops free from chemical fertiliser while replenishing soil health.

COMACO has since planned to plant 100 million trees for the 2022/2023 season as part of its nature-based solutions for climate change.

Last year in Glasgow Scotland, at the COP26, countries made bold collective commitments to curb emissions, halt, and reverse forest loss, and align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050. This was in recognition of the importance of nature for both reducing emissions and building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

For more information, contact

George Sichinga – Communications Manager, COMACO

Email: gsichinga@staging.itswild.org

Cell: +260966494292

Farmers from five COMACO cooperatives in Katete had an idea – to plan a farmer exchange visit with farmers from Mwasemphangwe Chiefdom within Lundazi District to learn how to better protect the environment.

Farmers from Mwasemphangwe and Katete sharing ideas

The Katete-based farmers pooled their resources, and on Thursday the 20th of September, the farmer exchange visit finally took place when farmers from Katete visited farmers in Mwasemphangwe Chiefdom.

The aim of the farmer exchange visit was to allow the farmers from these two districts, which are 3.5 hours apart, an opportunity to exchange knowledge on how to reduce deforestation, charcoal production, and poaching. 

Route between Katete and Mwasemphangwe Chiefdom in Lundazi District

It was noticed that as you move along Great East Road near Katate, the sale of charcoal is rampant compared to the road toward Lundazi. Further, it is evident that the the vegetation along the Lundazi Road is much denser and healthier. This disparity is perhaps not a coincidence: COMACO has been working with over 3,000 famers in Mwasemphangwe for nearly 15 years, whereas, COMACO has only been working in Katete for 3 years.

Charcoal for sale along Great East Road in Katete

Based on the observations, farmers from Katete wanted to learn best practices from their farmer friends in Lundazi so they can implement these environmental protection strategies in and around Katete. The farmers from the two areas spent time in conversation, exchanging ideas and tactics to support their environment.

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][blockquote style=”left_border” font_size=”24px” color=”#9e9e9e” source=”Mr. Sam Munkombwe, COMACO Regional Coordinator”] “The farmer exchange visit will profoundly benefit the Katete farmers and their chiefs”[/blockquote]

The COMACO farmers were welcomed to the palace in Mwasemphangwe and were accompanied by several high-ranking individuals  from the area, including:

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• Headman Chipuka from Mbangombe Village
• Representative for Chief Chilupako from Kathumba Village
• Representative for Chief Ngwangwa from Kawaza Village and
• Representative for Chief Mwasemphangwe – Mr. Banda Gabriel[/list_style][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1454241148818{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1″]

Farmers visiting the Palace in Mwasemphangwe Chiefdom

During the farmer exchange visit, the farmers from Mwasemphangwe showed the farmers from Katete their thriving Community Conservation Area. The visit went on well the farmers from Katate learned many things. Mostly, the farmers from the two areas talked about being persistent in order to end the trend of charcoal making. Additionally, they discussed ways to engage more with the traditional leaders, as the traditional leaders can come up with laws on how to punish those found cutting trees for charcoal.

Farmers visiting the Community Conservation Area in Mwasemphangwe Chiefdom

COMACO intends to help more cooperatives organize additional farmer exchange visits, based on the success of this first visit.  

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][blockquote style=”left_border” font_size=”24px” color=”#9e9e9e” source=”Mr. Sam Munkombwe, COMACO Regional Coordinator”] “Katete used to face a lot of deforestation and land degradation. But through the coming of COMACO and working together with stakeholders like the Ministry of Agriculture, the Forestry Department, and the Ministry of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs, the individual farmers and their communities have learned about the importance of conservation, and how necessary their role is to achieve a green environment that will provide sustainable development to their chiefdoms.”[/blockquote]

UPDATE: Thanks to a donation from USAID, we were able to secure 16 desktop computers. You can read more about it in this blog post.

Dear COMACO Supporter,

COMACO has a 15 year history of supporting bottom-of-the-pyramid farmers across Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, home to some of Africa’s most important wildlife populations. Working with traditional leaders, or Chiefs as they are locally known, is pivotal to COMACO’s work in order to advance more progressive thinking about land management and resource protection.  

From these relationships, COMACO has identified 16 chiefs that have demonstrated a real desire to take wildlife conservation seriously and leverage their traditional powers to prevent further degradation of natural resources on their land and restore what has been lost.

We are aiming to provide these 16 Chiefs with second-hand computers in order to further assist these 16 Chiefs in pursuing conservation efforts in conjunction with COMACO.

These laptops will be loaded with Global Forest Watch, which will allow chiefs to view real-time incidence of fires, deforestation, and environmental trends in their chiefdoms. The selected Chiefs will be mentored by Japhet Seulu and Angel Mukangu,  COMACO’s GIS Specialists, to use this information to assess their efforts and relate management decisions and delegated efforts by members of the community to influence these trends.

If you have a spare computer you would like to donate to COMACO’s Computers-for-Chiefs Initiative, we will be receiving through October 5 to the following address:

Dale Lewis

12510 Sanford Street

Los Angeles, CA 90066

We thank you in advance for your consideration and your gracious donation. Your support will help COMACO achieve a lasting mark for conservation in Zambia’s most vulnerable chiefdoms. For more information, queries, and donation within Zambia, please email obell@staging.itswild.org. 

Yours sincerely,

Dale Lewis

CEO and Founder of COMACO

The History of the Zambia Annual Quality Awards

The Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry is the custodian of the National Quality Policy in Zambia, which forms the backbone of all quality related matters in the country. The Ministry developed the National Quality Policy with the support of the United Nations Industrial Development (UNIDO)-Trade Capacity Building Project and was approved by Government in December 2010. Among the key policy objectives is to ensure that goods and services produced and supplied in Zambia meet local and international quality requirements. The Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry in Zambia identified the need to establish the National Quality Awards programme in order to recognise and appreciation organisations and individuals who excel and are contributing to quality advancement in all sectors of Zambia.

Mr. David Sakala, Quality Assurance Manager at COMACO

“These awards tell a story of the behind-the-scenes work done by companies to ensure that the products that reach the consumers are safe.”

Mr. David Sakala, COMACO’s Quality Assurance Manager

The award programme was designed to motivate Zambian market operators to leverage high-quality standards to add value to their products, so as to better compete in the Zambian and international market.

Winners from the 2017 Zambia Annual Quality Awards

In order to recognise and appreciate organisations and companies who excel and are contributing to quality advancement in all sectors of Zambia, the annual awards were judged on the following criteria:

What does the company/organisation do to improve the quality of products, services and operations?

How does the company/organisation benefit from the improvement of the quality of products, services and operations?

What business opportunities are being created or expanded through the company/organisation’s quality efforts?

How does the company/organisation utilize quality in its activities for growing the business, and what quality control and customer feedback mechanisms does it have in place to improve quality?

Based on the above judgement criteria, COMACO was honoured to win a first place award in the 2017 Zambia Annual Quality Awards, alongside many of Zambia’s most highly regarded companies and organisation, as listed below:

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• COMACO: Company of the Year (Small/Medium Enterprise)
• Global Industries: Company of the Year (Large Enterprise)
• Mosi (Zambian Breweries): Product of the Year (Large Enterprise) 
• Luano Honey: Product of the Year (Small/Medium Enterprise)
• Varun Beverages Limited: Exporter of the year (Large Enterprise)
• NAPSA: Service of the Year (Large Enterprise)
• Spruceland Tech: Service of the Year (Small/Medium Enterprise)
• Mike Sichula (Radio Phoenix): Individual Award for Media Publicist of the Year

Additionally, COMACO was awarded 3rd place prize for Best Product of the Year for our It’s Wild! Peanut Butter.[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][blockquote style=”left_border” font_size=”24px” color=”#9e9e9e” source=”Mr. David Sakala, COMACO’s Quality Assurance Manager”]

“COMACO produces products that are consumed by a large population, both in Zambia and selected parts of other countries. The company works hard to ensure the safety of all the consumers of our products and meets all the legislations and regulations of both national and international bodies. By following high standard of quality we have gained customer confidence, regulators approval, and the consumer’s loyalty. We have managed to position ourselves strategically on the market as a result of our quality.”[/blockquote][vc_column_text]

COMACO is committed to exceeding quality standards in all aspects of our work. As the application process for the 2018  Zambia Annual Quality Awards draws closer, COMACO is looking forward to once again participating in these important awards.

[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/3″][blockquote font_size=”18px” color=”#4caf50″ source=”Mr. David Sakala, COMACO’s Quality Assurance Manager”]“By means of these award, the companies that have invested and implemented systems that ensure that high standard of quality are followed, are recognised. Such recognition is a motivation for companies to better improve their systems. The result is that the customer is a beneficially. Awareness of companies that win such awards should ultimately lead more consumers loyalty and more sales of Zambian-made products.”[/blockquote][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]

To learn more about COMACO’s award-winner It’s Wild! products, please click here.

Dear Supporters of COMACO and It’s Wild!,

As the Founder and CEO of COMACO, I’d like to personally thank everyone who visited our stand at the 2018 Agricultural and Commercial Society of Zambia (ACSZ) Show. We estimate that over 6,000 people passed through our stand, and it was our pleasure to interact with each and every one of you.

We are always improving to serve you, the customer, as well as the farmers that produce our products. At the ACSZ Show, we explained how COMACO’s It’s Wild! brand of healthy food products drives market incentives for farmers to adopt practices help protect the environment, wildlife, trees, and soils of the Luangwa Valley.

We shared with you our commitment to continue making our It’s Wild! products, which are healthy, nutritious and tasty.  We explained we do this to keep our close partnership with small-scale farmers alive and growing because of the great service they can provide to conservation when market gives them a good deal for doing so.

We heard your vote of confidence in COMACO’s vision and saw your support for It’s Wild! products. We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the trust you have put in our brand.

Additionally, we are delighted and honored to announce that COMACO has won a two first place prizes at the Ag Show:

• Best Non-Governmental Organisation
• Best “Made in Zambia” Product

We are so humbled to have won these two 1st place awards against such strong competition. We share this honor with you and thank you for all your overwhelming support.

Additionally, we were especially honoured that His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia Edgar Chagwa Lungu took the time to learn about COMACO’s work. It was our privileged to tell President Lungu about our impact in the Luangwa Valley and to show him our delicious It’s Wild! products.

Further, we would like to thank the entire COMACO team, the staff and judges, the team at ACSZ, as well as the staff and judges of the awards. And, very importantly, we’d like to thank you, our consumers, whose continued support makes the mission and work of COMACO and It’s Wild! possible.

Sincerely,

Dale Lewis

Founder and CEO of COMACO

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he month of July was abuzz at COMACO with preparations for the Zambia’s largest agriculture event, the Agricultural and Commercial Society of Zambia (ACSZ) Show. The event was held in Lusaka’s Showgrounds from August 1 to 6, in conjunction with the Farmer’s Day holiday.

For the first time, COMACO and It’s Wild! hosted their own exhibit, which was met with prizes, accolades, and huge crowds.

Read more below to learn about the happenings at the event:

Telling the COMACO Story Through Infographics

An Infographic Display Wall at COMACO’s Stand at the Agri Show

At this year’s ACSZ Show, we designed our stand to be heavily focused on using infographics to showcase our work and our impact. Infographics allowed us to our information in a visually engaging way in order to attract and inform a large audience at the ACSZ Show. Additionally, infographics helped display our information in an easily understandable way to ACSZ attendees with limited literacy.

Throughout the show, the large 2 by 3 meter infographic of COMACO’s Approach’ was a main attraction. Passersby stopped regularly to take photos of the infographic, and the COMACO staff used the infographic to help able to tell the organisation’s story.

The infographic was designed by Lindsay Olsen, a Masters Student Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, who completed her 8 week Master’s practicum at COMACO.

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New Product Testing

Taste test of It’s Wild! new chilli sauces

The team in Chipata has been busy developing It’s Wild!’s newest products – chilli sauce and dried tomatoes. The ACSZ show was the perfect opportunity for our Food Technologists, Carol and David, to test 4 different variations of the chili sauces and 3 different variations of the dried tomatoes to get customer feedback.  

The positive feedback on both the chilli sauce and the dried tomatoes was tremendous. People loved the chilli sauce so much, that after sampling they came back to our stand to ask us to add a dollop of chilli sauce to their lunch plates!

Based on feedback from the show, the public is very excited for us to release our chilli sauce and dried tomatoes in the near future.

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The Crowd Was Fired Up About Our Groundnut Briquettes

COMACO’s groundnut briquettes

As part of our exhibit, we displayed how we press groundnut shells into groundnut briquettes. We use these briquettes to roast our peanuts and we also sell the briquettes from our Chipata location, which can be used by consumers as a renewable charcoal source.

The crowds at the ACSZ Show were abuzz about our inventive briquettes. Even His Excellency, President Edgar Lungu was immensely impressed and interested in our briquette making efforts. Mr. Lungu stated that he avidly supports this sort of innovation, and that he hopes more Zambian engineers will take interest in developing briquette-making machinery within Zambia.

Based on interest in our groundnut briquettes at the show, the COMACO and It’s Wild! team is brainstorming ways to bring the renewable briquettes to the larger consumer market in Zambia.

His Excellency, President Edgar Lungu hears about COMACO’s production of groundnut briquettes

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Try and Buy It’s Wild!

A section of COMACO’s booth at the ACSZ Show was dedicated to our It’s Wild! products. Here, our Food Technologists and our Sales Directors oversaw huge crowds who were interested in sampling and buying our It’s Wild! Products.

For product sampling, in an effort to be environmentally conscious, we decided to forgo the use of conventional plastic sampling spoons. Rather, we opted to use biodegradable wooden spoons to sample our delicious and all-natural peanut butter.

In all, we gave out more than 40 kilograms of peanut butter samples during the show.

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Kids LOVED the Taste of Our Yummy Soy!

“It tastes YUMMY!” exclaimed an lively young girl, as she tasted Yummy Soy from the palm of her hand. Throughout the show, we gave out ___# of 100 gram sachets of Yummy Soy. The feedback was unianimous: kids loved the product.

COMACO Food Technologist Carol Mfune even turned the interest in Yummy Soy into a lesson in nutrition for a group of students. The group of students had the opportunity to win a free sample of Yummy Soy for guessing correctly the nutrients found in the product. “Fiber!” they shouted, and Carol would reward the students with 100 gram packets of Yummy Soy.

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Winning Big!

The wonderful ACSZ event culminated in an awards ceremony. We are delighted and honoured to announce that COMACO won a two first place prizes!

• Best Non-Governmental Organisation
• Best “Made in Zambia” Product

Judges assessed the stands at the show based on design, finish, impact, and information.

Richard Mumba accepts COMACO’s first place prize at Agricultural and Commercial Society of Zambia Show

COMACO CEO and Founder, Dale Lewis, says of the award:

“The Agricultural Show is like the Grammys for us. We are so pleased to have won these two 1st place awards against such strong competition. We remain committed to supporting small-scale farmers, improving the environment, and creating Zambia’s best food products under the brand It’s Wild!”

If you would like to know more about the awards or COMACO’s work, please contact, contact Olivia Bell at obell@staging.itswild.org.

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