FAO – News: Director-General visits young farmers’ farm in Eswatini

Mbabane – Today, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu visited a farm in the Kingdom of Eswatini where young owners are growing beans and maize and processing their produce to increase its value. The company, called Smiling Through Farming, also supplies products as part of the joint FAO/World Food Program (WFP) Homegrown School Feeding project, which encourages schools to provide nutritious meals to students and acquire foodstuffs from small local farmers.

During the visit, the Director General spoke with young farmers, including Nkosephayo Manyatsi, aged 27, who trained as a food scientist.

Mr. Qu Dongyu said he was happy to meet passionate young people who were contributing to the necessary transformation of agri-food systems globally to improve production, nutrition, environment and living conditions. He also told farmers how they could further improve their protein-rich bean mash and other products to reach new markets, including leveraging e-commerce.

As part of the school feeding program using local production, FAO offered technical support and training to small farmers, as well as agricultural inputs. At the same time, WFP purchased the products which it then supplied to schools, which facilitated commercial links.

During his two-day visit to Eswatini, the Director-General also met with King Mswati III, after an event celebrating the first harvest of marula and other products. He reaffirmed FAO’s determination to further strengthen collaboration with Eswatini to contribute to the transformation of the Swasi agri-food system.