AGRICULTURE might not be the most attractive industry to many young people out there, but 25-year-old Maanda Sianga considers farming as a game changer for youth problems.
Maanda who practices mixed farming on family land in Kafue’s Chanyanya area is among an increasing number of university-educated agriculture entrepreneurs in Zambia.
After she graduated from university at Mulungushi in Kabwe, Maanda was reluctant to tell anyone especially her peers what she planned to do for a living.
“I’m a farmer,” she said, displaying two huge live fish from her ponds. “Commonly, other young people may look at it (being a farmer) as an embarrassment.”
Maanda graduated from the university in 2019 and directly went into farming instead of looking for a white collar job.
She is fighting the stigma by seeking to professionalise farming by applying scientific approaches and data-crunching apps not just to increase yields, but to show that agriculture can be profitable.
She runs an award winning company called Agro Queens Trading.
Her interest in commercial farming bloomed in 2012 after a school tour of Zambeef Huntley Farm in Chisamba when she was in her 10th grade at Banani International Secondary School. She was 15.
“I visited Zambeef Huntley farm in 2012 in my 10th grade and from that day I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was so impressed with what they were doing and I told myself I too can do it this big,” she said.
Going back to Banani, Maanda started visualising herself as a budding farmer.
To cement her ambitions, upon completing her school in 2014 she went for a Bachelor’s of Science in agriculture at Mulungushi University and completed in 2018.
In July 2019, at the age of 22, Maanda ventured into farming full-time.
Growing up on a family farm she got more interested in being part of the family business and this also helped her start Agro Queens using the infrastructure on the farm.
“I went to Westwood international in Botswana where I grew up until 2012 when we moved back to Zambia. I developed interest at 15 years old because I saw that farming is that noble profession because food does not run out of fashion. People eat every day,” she said.
Born on May 14, 1997, Maanda was born in Gaborone, Botswana. She is the youngest of three children.
Two of her sisters are also working at the family farm. One did accounting while the other computer science.
Maanda keeps a wide range of poultry. She is into fish farming and grows a wide range of assorted vegetables, soya beans and other grains like maize.
With the risk involved in farming and instability of market prices diversification has allowed Maanda to effectively run her business.
“Mixed farming helps me spread risk when one line is down you can rely on another,” she said.
Agro Queens also has a wide range of services apart from farming.
“We also train farmers and farm workers from 2020 till date we have trained 4,000 people across Zambia and some abroad. We also have sponsors who sponsor people for our trainings too. We also offer consultancy services to farmers. We help farmers to budget and source inputs,” Maanda said.
Maanda recently held an online training of over 700 participants from United Kingdom, Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Germany and Zambia among many other countries.
For Maanda, farming has a steep challenge just like any other venture. Undeveloped distribution networks, poor roads and fickle water supplies are difficult hurdles for even the most competent farmer, and many of these would-be farmers who have little training or experience.
Rolling up sleeves and bucking convention as early as 05:30 every day, Maanda has left behind cushy jobs.
She has opted to use land and make agriculture her profession at an early age.
“We have to show people that farming is bling. I want to transform mind-sets,” Maanda said, holding an organic soya beans seedling.
“If we fail, it means the industry has failed. It means we have failed many young people.”
She has one promise, “Farming will never be easy just like any other venture.”
But how many people does she work with.
“So with workers I have them for specific tasks. I have groups of women between 5 to 15 depending on work available,” Maanda said.
Maanda is also an award winning young farmer and Ted X Speaker.
At a glance, Maanda might seem to be a misplaced representative for Zambian agriculture. She’s made appearances in several high level meetings.
Maanda said if she had to do it all again she would still be in agriculture.
It’s no secret, she has repeated this to millions on her personal Facebook page.
Maanda said given its sheer magnitude, even minor improvements in Zambian agriculture have the potential to determine the prosperity of the entire country.
“Over the next decade, the sector is going to have to expand, considerably to nourish a growing and much younger population. The industry is ripe with opportunities that will inevitably shape the economies of tomorrow,” she said.
Maanda is betting that Zambia’s next big ideas are probably going to be in its agriculture.
She said the diversification journey has just begun.
Her next goal is dairy farming.
“A few days ago I found my 10th grade book where I wrote down how I really wanted to become a dairy farmer. It was quite an ambiguous (uncertain) goal of having 1,000 milkers (Dairy cows). 10 years later my dream will materialise,” she said.
Her current project now is building structures that will house the 1,000 dairy cows.
Author: DOREEN NAWA
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