{"id":77606,"date":"2023-05-08T11:54:41","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T09:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts"},"modified":"2023-05-08T14:21:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T12:21:37","slug":"they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts","title":{"rendered":"They stumbled into farming, now feeding entire districts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>By Walter Marwizi for bird story agency<\/b><\/p>\n

MASVINGO \u2013 It\u2019s just after 5.30 am, and a blue truck laden with fresh farm produce pulls into Chitima market, Masvingo. Several market vendors rush to meet it as it slows down to a stop.<\/p>\n

Four young women donned in white overalls alight from the truck and within 15 minutes, all of its load of ripe tomatoes is in the hands of the market sellers.<\/p>\n

With the morning\u2019s business over, the four women return to the truck and head back to their farms.<\/p>\n

One of them is 31-year-old Faith Mugomba.<\/p>\n

When she failed to get formal employment after graduation, Mugomba opted to go into farming. \u201cIt dawned on me that I could not starve in Harare job-hunting, while my parents owned an underutilised 20ha land back home in Masvingo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her journey began with $5.<\/p>\n

Mugomba borrowed the equivalent of $5 to buy data from a friend and spent days researching online about growing horticultural produce. \u201cThat is how my farming journey started,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Mugomba family plot is near Popoteke river, which feeds into Mutirikwi, Zimbabwe\u2019s second-largest inland lake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started, I didn\u2019t have any irrigation equipment and would heavy-lift 25-litre buckets daily to water vegetables I planted on a 20-by-10-square-metres of land,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After selling her first products, she bought a second-hand irrigation pump that lessened the back-breaking work.<\/p>\n

She attributes her success to good negotiating skills, but most importantly, the ability to dodge greedy middlemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese men robbed us in broad daylight. That is why we saw the need to connect directly with the market, hence our early morning visits to Chitima market,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mugomba represents a new era of farmers in Africa \u2014 enterprising young women in their 20s and 30s involved in the entire supply chain, from the farm to the market.<\/p>\n

These trailblazing young women surf the Internet for best farming ideas and practices, connect with the market on mobile phones and market their products on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n

Yvonne Shumbanhete, 32, is also among these women.<\/p>\n

When economic hardships forced her to migrate from Zimbabwe, she moved to Botswana, where she married at 19 and was widowed at 21.<\/p>\n

She then returned to Zimbabwe with her baby and got a job as a janitor before getting employment at a microfinance institution.<\/p>\n

However, successive Covid-19 lockdowns forced her to start a backyard farming business after her employer suspended all programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was idle at home, and my little income at that moment would not sustain me, especially when it was lockdown after lockdown. That is when I decided to get into farming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even have a hoe or shovel. I actually took my dishing spoon from the house and used it as a garden trowel,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The seemingly going back-to-basics backyard gardening response unexpectedly launched her seedling business, which has now expanded and earned her a place in a ZimTrade Female Exporter programme.<\/p>\n

ZimTrade is a national body that seeks to develop Zimbabwe companies with products that can be exported to other countries.<\/p>\n

Under the Female Exporter programme, the organisation is trying to specifically develop selected Zimbabwe women with the potential to join the export market.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her journey, Shumbanhete said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI just bought one packet of seeds in town and I came, I nursed it, then I took what I wanted to plant, I then went on a WhatsApp group and said I got some seedlings for covo (vegetable).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had so many people asking for the seedlings and others were inquiring about other seeds that I didn\u2019t have. I realised there was a business opportunity in that, and that\u2019s when I decided to go back to the shop and get assorted seeds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Shumbanhete has since moved her business from her backyard to a farm 50km from Masvingo. She sells seedlings to farmers and herbs to supermarket chains, hotels, universities and colleges.<\/p>\n

She has parsley, coriander fennel, mint, aloe vera, lemongrass, garlic chives, sweet basil and cassava in stock.<\/p>\n

Boosted by knowledge gained from her recent training, she has also started value-adding her products by drying vegetables containing herbs and is making preparations to venture into the spices business.<\/p>\n

Her next step: getting her products onto supermarket shelves.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Walter Marwizi for bird story agency MASVINGO \u2013 It\u2019s just after 5.30 am, and a blue truck laden with fresh farm produce pulls into Chitima market, Masvingo. Several market vendors rush to meet it as it slows down to a stop. Four young women donned in white overalls alight from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":77605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-77606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nThey stumbled into farming, now feeding entire districts - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Walter Marwizi for bird story agency MASVINGO \u2013 It\u2019s just after 5.30 am, and a blue truck laden with fresh fa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They stumbled into farming, now feeding entire districts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Walter Marwizi for bird story agency MASVINGO \u2013 It\u2019s just after 5.30 am, and a blue truck laden with fresh fa ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T09:54:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T12:21:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683530689.47.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"524\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"They stumbled into farming, now feeding entire districts\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-08T09:54:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-08T12:21:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts\"},\"wordCount\":734,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683530689.47.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zimbabwe\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/they-stumbled-into-farming-now-feeding-entire-districts\",\"name\":\"They stumbled into farming, now feeding entire districts - 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