Farmer and beekeeper, Martha Banda

Martha Banda, 47 years old is a hard working woman living in Kagunda area of Chipata; she is mother of one son and she is looking after her old aged parents. She is into citrus farming, beekeeping, general crops and livestock farming. Martha was identified and selected to be trained and guided in business skills by Jacana and she was invited to attend a two days business, finance and marketing training.

Martha during business training

After the training she was selected to own a partly sponsored rope pump so she has now access to water throughout the year and is able to expand her business in citrus trees (oranges).

Pump at Martha Banda’s yard

Martha was trained in organic farming. She is now using her composed manure to grow her fruit trees organically; she is also using the manure in her general crops such as maize production. During this training she learned about grafting and budding of trees and this helped her to expand her citrus farming as she is able to produce her own trees through the technology.

Grafting orange trees

She was also trained in bee keeping and she has taken beekeeping as a business. After the training she acquired partly sponsored 1 top bar hive, 2 suits and 1 smoker. She further used a local carpenter to make 13 more hives using the top bar hive she got from jacana as an example.

Martha and her beehives