KAbV’s social impact is driven by two core empowerment pillars designed to deliver sustainable, organic growth and long-term community resilience.
Our Empowerment Mechanisms:
Outgrower Scheme: Guaranteed market access and technical assistance for local farmers supplying KAbV.
Through our Outgrower Scheme, we will engage local farmers to supply us with maize and other inputs for our feed production, providing them with a guaranteed market and technical support while targeting a minimum 20% increase in annual household income in Year 1. Farmers supply maize and vegetables for animal feed, ensuring stable demand, improved productivity, and reliable income streams.
Community Starter Packs: Livestock starter packs and training for vulnerable, women-led households to establish sustainable income streams..
Our Pass-On Scheme will focus on inclusive growth by supporting 50 vulnerable, women-led households with starter packs, including piglets and fingerlings, alongside hands-on training. Beneficiary households are required to pass on offspring to the next designated family, creating a self-sustaining cycle of wealth creation, food security, and community ownership. This scheme has already been pioneered by the Government of Zambia under the Ministry of Community Development. KAbV wishes to supplement the efforts of the Government as not every vulnerable household is supported under this scheme due to limited government resources.
All empowerment activities will be anchored by KAbV’s Center of Excellence, a practical learning facility dedicated to training 100 small-scale farmers and 15 student interns annually in modern, zero-waste, climate-smart agriculture. This center strengthens local capacity, builds a skilled talent pipeline, and ensures consistent quality across our supply chain.
Problem Addressed:
Small-scale and vulnerable farming households face systemic barriers that limit their ability to transition from subsistence to sustainable commercial agriculture. These include limited access to guaranteed markets, technical support, and start-up capital, as well as the high cost of key farm inputs, particularly fertiliser and animal feed, which restricts productivity and scaling. As a result, many farmers remain trapped in low-yield, subsistence farming systems.
The community also faces widespread poverty due to limited economic opportunities, compounded by the collapse of a former fish trade hub following the depletion of fish stocks in the natural lake that once supported local livelihoods. In addition, the lack of farmer training facilities, inadequate extension and technical support, and the absence of small-scale commercial farming role models further constrain innovation, skills development, and adoption of improved, climate-smart practices.