The people of the Kingdom of Eswatini, a diplomatic ally of Taiwan, rely heavily on agriculture for their livelihood. Due to poor local agricultural production practices, it is impossible for domestically produced food and meat products to compete with imports from South Africa, and the persistent lack of capital, product marketing capabilities, sales channels, and market information make it difficult for smallholding farmers to survive and upgrade from producers to business owners.

In order to address the challenges encountered in agricultural development in Eswatini, the TaiwanICDF Technical Mission in the Kingdom of Eswatini provides technical support to local pig farmers (more than 70% of whom are women). Through the promotion of artificial insemination technology introduced in the previous “Pig Industry Enhancement Project”, the genetics of breeding pigs have been greatly optimized, and the average annual livestock output and weight of pigs raised by smallholding farmers have increased significantly, effectively enhancing agricultural production and efficiency. Ms. Mahlalela, a local pig farmer, pointed out that in the past, her pigs weighed only about 35 kilograms when they were 4 and a half months old, but through the counseling of the TaiwanICDF Technical Mission, her 4 and a half month old pigs now weigh 60 to 65 kilograms, significantly increasing her income from pig farming. Based on this successful case, the mission has matched 10 pig farmers with meat wholesalers to establish sales channels and promote a hygienic slaughtering system, with the ambition of gradually establishing a high-quality domestic pork brand, while building small freezers as a basis for a cold chain supply chain system in the future. Through these efforts, the country saw an increase in its domestic pork production from 785 metric tons in 2015 to 2,226 metric tons in 2021. Starting in 2020, the nation no longer imports pork from neighboring countries, reaching its goal of self-sufficiency in pork.

For local women who generally lack knowledge on financial planning or running microenterprises, through the “Capacity Building Project for Microfinance Ecosystem Focusing on Grassroots Women”, the TaiwanICDF Technical Mission provided local women with training in handicrafts, entrepreneurship, microfinance, operations, and repayment planning, and assisted 351 local women to obtain microfinancing amounting to about US$150,000. Over 60% of the women counseled by the TaiwanICDF Technical Mission were successful in obtaining local microfinancing.

In addition, the TaiwanICDF Technical Mission has integrated the resources of the aforementioned microfinance project with the technical assistance of the “Fruit Tree Production and Marketing Project (Phase II)”, thus helping smallholding farmers and grassroots women to improve their farming income. The Mzimnene Women’s Class successfully harvested about US$1,500 in sweet potatoes in 4 months, which is equivalent to 8 months of agricultural income for the average smallholder farmer in Eswatini. The guavas produced by the class was sold through a supermarket sales channel established with the help of the TaiwanICDF Technical Mission, and was selected as the first prize winner in quality agricultural produce by the National Farmers’ Festival 2022 organized by the Ministry of Agriculture Eswatini, gradually transforming the local agricultural landscape.

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• Update: 2022/11/02
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