The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
AN enterprising 32-year-old farmer from Emganwini high-density suburb in Bulawayo has embarked on a thriving tomato sack project that he operates from his backyard.
After failing to obtain a meaningful yield from a potato sack project, which he started in March, Mr Knowledge Ziome decided to try his luck in growing the edible red fruit in sacks, in an effort to supplement his salary.
Mr Ziome’s futile attempt to realise a significant harvest from his potato sack project meant that he joined thousands of Zimbabweans especially town dwellers that disastrously failed to turn the agricultural initiative into a lucrative venture during the period stretching from year 2013 to last year.
At the time, this type of farming was being touted as the answer to commercial agriculture in towns and cities, where residents do not have the luxury of vast expanses of land to carry out farming.
Mr Ziome abandoned sack potato production and started a tomato sack project in September.
“In March, I started a potato sack project but it failed to yield anything meaningful and I abandoned it for sack tomato. I resorted to growing the tomatoes in sacks because of limited space at my home.
“I have always been a dedicated and determined horticulturist since my school days at Mavuradonha in Mount Darwin. The reason for venturing into this project was solely to generate extra income to enhance my livelihood,” he said.
Mr Ziome reckons that sack tomato planting has numerous advantages compared to growing the fruit on the ground.
“Sack tomato planting has many comparative advantages compared to cropping on the ground, for instance it enhances aeration, one doesn’t need much water for irrigation and the sack ensures moisture is conserved for some time since we are currently experiencing severe water shortages while it also prevents applied fertilisers from leaching,” he said.
Mr Ziome had his first harvest from his 210 bags at the first week of this month but two weeks ago his crop was slightly affected by a hailstorm.
“I started harvesting in the first week of this month and I can pick a 20-litre bucket or more full of tomatoes after every three days. Unfortunately my crop was affected by hailstorm, especially the prime plants and the flowering part.
“However, I have been fortunate enough in that my crop is still to be affected by pests but I do elementary pesticide spraying and also apply fertiliser which is recommended for the tomato crop,” he said.
Mr Ziome said he intends to extensively embark on sack tomato production following the success of his pilot project.
“I intend to put 1 000 bags of the tomato crop soon as I have realised that this is a lucrative venture. I have already spoken to a friend of mine who has promised to reserve 600 square metres of land for me to carry out the project at his plot,” he said.
@DNsingo
