When cooperative members in Nsefu, Kazembe and Chitungulu chiefdoms had their maize and rice fields swept away by floods this past year, cooperatives from multiple chiefdoms on the plateau answered their call with sweet potato vines and cassava cuttings to ensure afflicted families would have food. Over 500 households benefited from this gesture of goodwill from the cooperatives to boost their threatened food security.

Other cooperatives have promised to provide bean seeds once harvested to counter risks of hunger following this natural disaster. Increasingly, cooperatives across Luangwa Valley are recognizing that cooperation and not competition will build a better future of everyone.”

What is driving this?

Partly the traditional values of helping and sharing are reemerging as cooperatives build a path toward self-reliance with new farming technologies and markets that COMACO is helping to support. As COMACO, we see a growing cooperative spirit of achieving more when cooperatives work together to overcome common challenges.

[bctt tweet=”One very common challenge is the destruction and loss of natural resources when communities do not plan or encourage better practices.” username=”COMACO_Zambia”] Such threats occur beyond cooperative boundaries and need a shared responsibility so such pressures can be contained and future economies developed.

COMACO’s radio program called Farm Talk and the increasing use of SMS messaging supported by COMACO are giving cooperatives a platform to communicate solutions and growing solidarity for linking conservation with development. [bctt tweet=”Tolerance to poaching and charcoal-making is waning and community pride in setting aside protected forests and enforcing environmental regulations is growing. #COMACOWorks #ForestConservation” username=”COMACO_Zambia”]

Where all this leads is a good question. It is probably not a quest to make lots of money because small-scale farming will not make you rich. For this pursuit, try your luck in the city with a skill that an advanced education can provide. But if it is life that offers free water to drink, free sustainable fuelwood for cooking, clean air, healthy foods you grow yourself, and having better markets to meet basic needs with ample time to enjoy friends and family, then it is easy to see why a life as a cooperative member would be preferred.

COMACO cooperatives have a ways to go as they build financial independence for supporting the needs of their members. Annual accounts need to be audited, annual general meetings require full attendance to build transparency and accountability of their leaders, and of course, good environmental governance is essential. These are the building blocks that will give COMACO farmers a real crack at making markets and conservation work together for a better life and a long-term commitment to the resources they live with.

COMACO works hard with close to 200,000 smallholder farmers to keep their soils naturally rich with minerals and organic compounds. Soils rich in natural nutrients helped by microbes in the soil produce plants that are able to withstand disease and sustain production better than plants in nutrient-poor soils.

We call this approach to farming, “farming with nature”, which includes such practices as zero tillage, crop residue retention, agroforestry, and crop rotation. As COMACO, we promote these and other nature-based ways for enhancing soil fertility through weekly radio programs broadcast in the local language, a widely disseminated, local language farming skills manual, and local trainers supporting year-round training needs of resident farmers.

By adopting the “farming with Nature” approach, small-scale farmers not only achieve improved yields, but they also lower their farming costs by minimizing or even eliminating the need for harmful chemicals that can find their way into the food chain. More importantly to the consumer, the shift to organic farming reduces risks of cancer and compromised immune systems that farm-based chemicals can sometimes cause. Equally important, as soils become restored with natural systems that perpetually replenish nutrients, farmers can stay put and farm the same plot year after year. In practice, this translates into the reduced need to clear forests for new farmland, and over time, Zambia’s watersheds and wildlife habitat become better protected.

For the farmer, the consumer and the environment, this is why COMACO produces only healthy food products. It sounds so simple and I wish it were! In reality, competing interests persuade farmers to grow certain crops with chemicals that slow down the transformation. Smallholder farmers are also cautious people and are reluctant to make changes and typically want to see a neighbor’s efforts first or to see the results from a small portion of their own before scaling.

The good news, though, is that we have a brand, It’s Wild!, that has a proven track record of giving good economic returns to farmers who commit to “farm with Nature”. We also have a growing number of consumers who trust us enough on delivering our health and conservation impact that they buy our products, not because they are the cheapest, but because they give us the full nutritional benefit straight from healthy soils that we help farmers maintain.

Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet and up to eighty percent of the world’s land-based species, such as elephants and rhinos, live in forests.

This past year COMACO came to Loveness‘s village to buy rice, a common crop for the area. It was the first time she and her husband have ever experienced a cash market. Previously, traders bartered their crops for cheap merchandise. It was only game meat that was sold across the border to DRC where her husband could earn money. Though he had never been arrested, he knew the risks could send him to prison.

Loveness describes the decision she and her husband recently made to avoid this fate, “when COMACO paid for our rice and showed us how much it was worth when we practice the farming skills we were taught, I told my husband it was better to stop poaching and he agreed to surrender his firearm. We can understand conservation now because COMACO has given us markets.”

Since COMACO began operations, 1,780 farmers like Loveness‘s husband have surrendered their firearms voluntarily, but the conservation problem is much greater than just poaching wildlife. It is also the environmental harm that farming causes when the wrong way of farming depletes soil nutrients and forces farmers to clear more land, resulting in fewer forests and less habitat for wildlife. This is the conservation crisis Zambia faces today.

Over 1,780, farmers like Loveness‘s husband have surrendered their firearms voluntarily since COMACO began working in Zambia.

Reversing this problem on a scale that can have an impact requires a collective effort by hundreds of thousands of farmers motivated to heal their land with farming practices that allow farmers to keep farming the same plot productively and indefinitely. COMACO is proving this is possible when market incentives and cost-savings drive the transformation.

Conservation business

This year, for example, there are over 61% of farmers that are doing “conservation business” with COMACO will be planting over 36 million agroforestry trees to help repair their soils. Not only are these farmers making significant cash savings by not having to buy expensive chemical fertilizers, but they are also building up carbon in the soil by sucking CO2 out of the air. Soil carbon is a key ingredient to healthy soils and can add additional revenue from the sale of this carbon as carbon credits on the open carbon market. Not only is COMACO helping farmers to realize this added carbon value by adopting an agroforestry farming system, but it is also helping 5,000 of its groundnut farmers to become organically certified producers to gain additional income from better-paying export markets.

With this emphasis on the needs of farmers and the resources they live with, COMACO has taken the long, hard road in building a viable business to serve conservation first and profits second. By staying the course, COMACO is proving the two can serve each other to find a more lasting solution for conservation.

The story of the two cooperatives is not just a story, but a story of change and inspiration.

At a time when every small-scale farmer was associated with government cooperatives for the sole purpose of benefiting from the well known Farmer Input Support Program (FISP), a new dimension of self- sustaining and for profit-making cooperative was born. This, of course, was a new initiative that could be embraced only by those willing to take risks.

The story of the two cooperatives can be traced back to the year 2006 when Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) saw the need to engage the community in Magodi chiefdom on the importance of conservation and wildlife protection.

Alfred Kanthangwa Kumwenda – Co-op Secretary for Eme and Kajilime

This inspirational story is best told by Alfred Kanthangwa Kumwenda, the secretary for the two cooperatives. Alfred says when COMACO introduced the idea of conservation-focused cooperatives to the community in Magodi in 2006, he and others immediately took up the challenge of trying something new from the usual.

“We formed producer groups of between fifteen and twenty members with the focus of practising conservation farming. The purpose of having many members was to ensure that work was made light” Alfred said. He added that most people in the community spent a lot of time hiring out labour to other farmers who were more successful in exchange for a bucket or two of maize. “We formed producer groups of between fifteen and twenty members with the focus of practicing conservation farming. The purpose of having many members was to ensure that work was made light”

After realizing that working in other people’s fields instead of their own, resulted in the loss of precious man-hours, COMACO moved in to empower cooperative members with 50kgs of maize, 2.5 liters of cooking oil, 5kgs of cowpeas and 2kgs of salt as a way of encouraging cooperative members to work in their own fields. This, of course, was a shot in the arm as most members were empowered with food thereby increasing production hours in their fields. “Since all the producer groups had members ranging from fifteen to twenty,” explained Alfred, “we came up with a strategy where all members agreed to work in each member’s field then move to the next. In this way, we managed to work in four or more fields per day. This system gave us less time of work and increased the bond among cooperative members.”

As always, where ever humans are, challenges emerge. Some cooperative members became used to the food handouts from COMACO and appeared to expect that this support would continue. Consequently, it took a lot of sensitization of such members until these perceptions could finally be brought to a halt. Yet most members appeared to expect that COMACO would provide them with fertilizer as was the case under the Farm Input Support Programme (FISP). Instead, said Alfred, COMACO came with messages of change –a change that would transform people from conventional farmers to conservational farmers. “We were taught about the need to stop bush burning and charcoal production, and instead to take up crop-rotation and the conservation of wildlife.

In 2012, COMACO gave the cooperative a sum of 5000 Kwacha, to conduct training for the transformed charcoal producers and poachers. Thirty-three people were trained, among them a female Jester Mbale whose late husband was a known poacher in the area. Other poachers had gone into the habit of borrowing her late husband’s gun to use in their poaching activities. “These people were trained in different skills such as carpentry, poultry, and vegetable gardening” Alfred narrated. The efforts and negotiations to persuade poachers to surrender their guns and charcoal producers to stop their trend continued, slowly but surely brought the lost vegetation and wildlife back.

Having put up all those efforts in making sure that bad habits towards the environment are eradicated, Magodi chiefdom saw the stoppage of charcoal production, an increase in wildlife populations, vegetation regrowth and forest cover.

This humble story initiated by COMACO caught the attention of other organizations such as the World Bank and a REDD+ and SALM carbon project was born Through this project, the two cooperatives and the established Community Forest Management Groups (CFMG), received a staggering amount of 600,000 Kwacha from carbon units earnings because of their valuable conservation works in the chiefdom. “We could not believe it but we soon realized that hard work pays off. Though we were surprised with the turn of events, we did not take long to accept the fact that working together for the common good attracts good things too.”

The money that was received from REDD+ and SALM (Sustainable Agriculture & Land use Management) pushed the vision of the two cooperatives towards becoming self-sustaining business entities. Two hammer mills were purchased and installed in Kulikuli area, a 1.5-ton community truck was purchased, Chambuzi School was painted and a teacher’s house was plastered and painted as well.

At Munyakwa School, two modern toilets were constructed from the same money. These developments in the community conservation area meant more care towards conservation efforts in Magodi chiefdom. “We realized that we further needed to lighten work for our members, so we decided to buy twelve heads of cattle and six rippers. Two heads of cattle plus a ripper were given to six VAGs (Village Area Groups) to maximize on minimum tillage and conservation practices”. A confident Alfred shared.

Before long, another 30,200 Kwacha was pumped into the two cooperatives from the same  World Bank carbon project. This money was meant for the re-enforcement of conservation efforts, promotion of agroforestry and the maximization of minimum tillage. After the implementation of the above programs, the two cooperatives decided to invest the remainder of the money in the poultry business to enhance even more self- sustainability.

In addition to their poultry businesses, the two cooperatives also have one tuck shop apiece, including hammer mill and transportation businesses. Other than that, COMACO gives the two cooperatives a reasonably sound commission as they take part in crop buying in the community on behalf of the organization. Since they run two hammer mills and one solar hammer mill which they acquired from the government on loan, they sell maize bran to the members of the community that keep pigs thereby leaving no stone unturned in income generation opportunities.

Alfred is not shy to say that the two cooperatives have reasonably fat bank accounts because they have realized that they are business entities and not platforms for handouts. “We are in business and not here solely for handouts like most cooperatives that only become active during fertilizer distribution. We run our business throughout the year, we are a company based in the rural countryside and our bank account is reasonably fat” boasts Alfred. “We are not an ordinary story, we are a story of change and hope,” said Alfred.

There have been notable increases in sightings of wildlife, including elephants

To cement the fact that the community in Magodi chiefdom is doing something right, the area has seen increased traffic of game animals as almost zero poaching is to be attained. Last December, the area saw eighteen elephants roaming around and countless impala has been spotted all over the chiefdom. Alfred says many opportunities await the two companies, as he fondly refers to the cooperatives where he is the secretary.

Last year, COMACO infused 12,400 Kwacha into the two cooperatives earned from conservation dividend funds, thanks to the communities compliance in all areas of conservation practices. This year (2019), the two cooperatives have already earned 14, 000 Kwacha as carbon credit payment from the World Bank because of high compliance scores.

Many plans lie ahead of the two companies in the rural setup. Alfred said the cooperatives aim to create job opportunities for youths who have completed school. Some of these youths will be trained in life skills that will give them income and develop the area. In addition to poultry rearing, Alfred revealed that plans are also underway to construct a training centre, build a guest house and establish a breeding centre for pigs, goats, and cattle and intentions to make the chiefdom an exemplary conservation-hub in Zambia.

Alfred advises other cooperatives to stop over-dependence on handouts from the government but be business-oriented, remain united and focused as it is what has made Eme COMACO and Kajilime cooperatives to flourish to self-sustainability. “We are not an ordinary story, we are a story of change and hope,” said Alfred.

It took time and research for COMACO to figure things out, but today we see a better story unfolding. Farmers have learned that composting and intercropping legumes or growing them in rotation with maize boosts crop yields. In addition,  planting crops in-between rows of nitrogen-fixing trees positively impacts the economics for small-scale farming communities. 

Using this approach, farmers can reduce the majority of the costs associated with expensive chemical inputs. Instead, they use a nitrogen-fixing tree called Gliricidia sepium that helps return soil health and is also a sustainable source of wood-fuel for cooking and heating needs. Today’s conscious consumer is looking for healthier food products, and with the right partners, we can provide market opportunities that reward rural farmers for making the shift sustainable agriculture methods.

One of the key roles we play in this value-chain is processing the pesticide-free crops from small-scale farmers into high-value food products sold under the It’s Wild! brand. We also provide access to commodity markets that pay top prices for crops grown without chemicals. COMACO also helps rural farming communities through their cooperatives to produce certified seeds which they sell at a reduced cost to its members. Community seed-banking also guarantees they can select high-yielding seeds that are GMO-free and bring essential market value to small-scale farmers

Meanwhile, what has happened to all those poachers?  Many have found a better life as COMACO farmers, gaining a sustainable and legal means of income generation plus food security.  Today, COMACO has over 186,000 registered farmers. Among these farmers, 1,653 were once poachers but have now surrendered their guns to learn sustainable farming methods. The added benefit is that they are assured a ready market by COMACO.

Zambia now has a way to turn crops into the answer to stopping elephant poaching!  It may sound far-fetched but speak to any rural farmer and they will tell you that the COMACO model makes conservation pays. No longer are unsustainable practices that destroy their natural resources needed.  It’s not sustainable. Ask the consumers, and more likely than not, they will say that It’s Wild! products are worth the purchase because they’re an organic food brand rooted in conservation and enhances food security for rural communities, number 2 of the SDG goals.

Interestingly, Andrew Maimisa is not a COMACO farmer but an ardent follower and listener of COMACO’s Farm Talk radio program. “I listen to COMACO programs on radio Breeze FM and I have heard testimonies from a lot of farmers that have had their lives transformed because of the work COMACO does to empower rural farmers. I also want to be part of this winning team; I am old and I have realized that I need to channel my remaining energy into farming and not go into the bush to hunt game illegally. After listening to many testimonies from transformed poachers shared on Farm Talk radio and learning that my Zambia earns a lot of forex from tourists who visit to see our wild animals, it convinced me to voluntarily give up my firearm” Maimisa said.

He further urged to COMACO to help him with beehives so that he can now concentrate on beekeeping and soybeans farming. And receiving the surrendered firearm from COMACO, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife area warden Erastus Kancheya, thanked COMACO for the good incentives that they continue to give to farmers who in turn and, motivate poachers to quit have become friends of wildlife. “As the DNPWL, we are humbled to have a partner like COMACO who are helping reduce the levels of poaching in Zambia. My appeal goes to those that still have firearms and traps to take them to COMACO or to surrender them at any of our provincial offices.”Kancheya said. He further warned those that are still in the habit of poaching that their time will come and that the long arm of the law will take its course.

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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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Mabel, 55, lives at the edge of town with her grandson in a small cinderblock house painted the same aquamarine green as the adjacent COMACO cooperative depot. Each morning she wakes just before sunrise and walks three kilometers to the far edge of the village, checking in with farmers as she passes. With the soy harvest in full swing, farmers ask her COMACO’s purchasing price and details on crop buying. As part of her leadership role, Mabel is in charge of organizing bulking events, where several hundred farmers deliver their harvest to the cooperative depot for sale to COMACO. The crops are tagged with both the farmer’s and cooperative’s name for quality insurance and loaded onto an industrial truck for delivery to the regional processing plant. In the lead up to crop purchasing, some farmers store their harvest at the depot for safe keeping weeks before purchase, and Mabel must keep careful track of who is owed what.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”8287″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Mabel is a single mother who supports not only her five children, but also four of her orphaned nieces. She pays the school fees for the youngest ones and the expensive college tuition for the two eldest who are studying to become teachers. Having access to this kind of money was unimaginable twenty years ago, she says. The new type of agriculture and continued community support that COMACO brought to her village has made it possible for her to make ends meet.

As a woman, especially, the change is marked.

“Before, women were not even allowed to sell their crops. Men would have to travel very far to find a market, and it wasn’t safe for women to go alone. But when men sold the crops, money would go missing. Maybe they went drinking or bought things for themselves. In the end, there was less for the family.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][blockquote style=”left_border” font_size=”24px” color=”#9e9e9e”] “Before COMACO we had so many problems. We didn’t have food security, we didn’t have money. Now we are trained in organic farming, we’re given seeds to grow, and today life is better.” [/blockquote][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1532684921480{margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”]Mabel, 55, lives at the edge of town with her grandson in a small cinderblock house painted the same aquamarine green as the adjacent COMACO cooperative depot. Each morning she wakes just before sunrise and walks three kilometers to the far edge of the village, checking in with farmers as she passes. With the soy harvest in full swing, farmers ask her COMACO’s purchasing price and details on crop buying. As part of her leadership role, Mabel is in charge of organizing bulking events, where several hundred farmers deliver their harvest to the cooperative depot for sale to COMACO. The crops are tagged with both the farmer’s and cooperative’s name for quality insurance and loaded onto an industrial truck for delivery to the regional processing plant. In the lead up to crop purchasing, some farmers store their harvest at the depot for safe keeping weeks before purchase, and Mabel must keep careful track of who is owed what.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“There is a lot of responsibility in this role. I am in charge of communicating with my farmers and also with COMACO,” she says.

Along the dirt road that runs throughout the town of Impezene, women sit in front of their homes surrounded by heaps of sundried peanuts hand sorting the healthy-looking shells into wicker baskets and plastic tubs. Numerous goats, donated to community cooperatives as part of COMACO’s livestock program, munch on the piles of discarded stalks.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”8356″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_single_image image=”8291″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Mabel is a single mother who supports not only her five children, but also four of her orphaned nieces. She pays the school fees for the youngest ones and the expensive college tuition for the two eldest who are studying to become teachers. Having access to this kind of money was unimaginable twenty years ago, she says. The new type of agriculture and continued community support that COMACO brought to her village has made it possible for her to make ends meet.

As a woman, especially, the change is marked.

“Before, women were not even allowed to sell their crops. Men would have to travel very far to find a market, and it wasn’t safe for women to go alone. But when men sold the crops, money would go missing. Maybe they went drinking or bought things for themselves. In the end, there was less for the family.”

Now, thanks to the organizing efforts of Mabel and other cooperative leaders, COMACO sends a truck directly to her village to purchase crops. Women are able to make the sale to COMACO of their hard-earned crop surplus, and more money is going to benefit the whole family.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1454241148818{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]When COMACO first began its operations, women were expected to stay home; farming was a man’s work. But COMACO trainers quickly realized that if they hosted trainings for both genders, things improved for the whole family. Outreach officers began supplying vegetable seeds to women and explaining the principles of organic gardening. COMACO started offering classes in nutrition, family planning, and business skills, and launched several village savings and loans groups for women. Once women started growing successful vegetable gardens, they were able to feed their families more nutritious food as well as earn additional income by selling the surplus on the roadside. Today men and women share time spent in the field. 52% of all COMACO farmers, and half of all cooperative leaders are women.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_empty_space height=”80″][blockquote]“We have gender equality in farming now,” says Mabel. “Things are more equal.”[/blockquote][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”8293″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]