Small Scale Commercial Farming in Zimbabwe

Background

Murehwa District is approximately 100km outside Harare; residents of this district rely primarily on small scale agriculture for subsistence and have been unable to go commercial due to lack of irrigation facilities, limited market knowledge and access to credit facilities.

The District receives about 700mm of rainfall per annum and has underground shallow water which can be tapped easily for irrigation. Soils are basically clay loams to sand loams. Main farming activities are horticulture, maize and groundnuts production. Over 100 farmers in the District sell their produce regularly and directly to Willowmead Junction, a local retailer/ wholesaler. Demand for increased produce is significant, both from Willowmead and other markets in Harare. Production capacity and the area of land cultivated are limited by reliance on hand watering for irrigation. The introduction of the treadle pump and appropriate piping and training of farmers in both best agronomic practices and use of treadle pump will increase yields, income and nutrition diet of the households and the community at large.

The Murehwa community used to produce baby corn for the past 15 years and selling it to HORTICO, a major supplier for chains in the UK. The farmers were overly dependent upon this sole buyer and when HORTICO abandoned the area in 2000 due to operational difficulties, the livelihoods of the farmers were severely impacted. This district is very volatile in terms of politics as evidenced by reported beatings and killings which happened prior to June 29 Run-off Elections in 2008. At the moment the political situation is fairly stable due to the formation of all inclusive Government.

Program

The project seeks to establish 5 demonstration sites and 1 training site where 250 farmers will be trained on the use of the treadle pump and agronomic practices of cash crops. The trained farmers are going to be linked to the credit facility (Micro-king) where they can apply for loans to purchase irrigation equipment and farming inputs.

The selection of the demonstration sites was done in collaboration with government departments (Agritex) and other key stakeholders. Water availability, gender and vulnerability issues were also considered as well as geographical coverage of the sites.

Collaboration with Agritex is being done in identifying suitable demonstration sites, training venue and setting up of those sites, development of the training curriculum and training schedule, delivering of training, monitoring and evaluation of the project. The project is serving the local community, Murehwa, and the Harare residents in providing the horticultural produce.

Accomplishments

  • Increase the capacity of 250 farmers to produce and successfully market cash crops through new equipment and thereby increasing incomes by 30% an dindirectly benefitting 1500 household members
  • Improve market competitiveness by linking 100 of the farmers to credit opportunities to purchase equipment that will help increase their capacity to produce cash crops. More than 50% of them will have loans approved.

Budget

The total budget for the program is $50,000.