The Sunday News
BULAWAYO’s urban and peri-urban agriculture is slowing down due to a number of factors such as city expansion and viability challenges, it has been established.
A tour of Douglasdale, Montgomery and Norwood, Bulawayo’s peri-urban areas that used to have a flourishing agriculture system, revealed that most people no longer venture into commercial peri-urban farming.
The areas used to supply the city and beyond with fresh horticultural produce such as potatoes, tomatoes, onions, green vegetables and green mealies among others.
The city’s low-density residential areas such as Burnside, Lochview, Trenance, Riverside and Richmond, also used to have a vibrant farming system.
In an interview, Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo confirmed that urban agriculture was going down.
“Some years ago when you were travelling into Bulawayo along Victoria Falls road, it was a green spectacle up to the 40-kilometre peg with the irrigation system working. Even when you were travelling by train and coming from Hwange or if you would go to Esigodini, it was the same situation,” he said.
He said the new occupants of the many peri-urban areas were failing to venture into productive farming.
“The old farmers who were there were replaced by new farmers. When you go there you can see that there was a farm but there is now grass,” said the mayor.
Clr Moyo said peri-urban agriculture started to slow down about 15 years ago.
“It’s not something that happened recently but it’s a problem that started sometime in 2000 and has been going on. The peri-urban agriculture that we are doing is that of just growing some vegetables in the backyard during the rainy season or along a stream. But this is not the peri-urban farming that was happening long back which was designed to feed the whole city,” he said.
He said the sector needed to be revived as it contributed meaningfully to the economy of the city.
“What we are having is seasonal farming and it’s not supportive of the economy. We would like to have something that will support this economy,” said Clr Moyo.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) Matabeleland North chairperson Mr Winston Babbage said many areas that were used for peri-urban farming were now residential areas.
“Places such as Qeensdale, Trenance, Rangemore, Emganwini have been sub-divided to become residential areas. Some land barons who own those places are saying it’s better to sell the land than farm,” said Mr Babbage.
“It’s a key sector which needs to be revived. There must be some green houses where crops like peas, tomatoes and cucumbers can be grown. The city council should relax the by-laws and allow people to carry out farming in the city like piggery or poultry or dairy farming,” he said.
One of the peri-urban farmers from Douglasdale, Mrs Sandra Ndlovu, said they were facing challenges to fully utilise their land for agriculture.
“We would like to revive the peri-urban farming but we are still facing some challenges. Shortage of water is one of them.
“We don’t have an irrigation system so our farming here is dependent on rain water,” she said.
Another farmer just outside Emganwini suburb, Mr Ken Nyoni, said the high utility bills charged by power company Zesa were making peri-urban farming unviable.
“Again, we have a serious challenge of high utility bills charged by Zesa. We need electricity for irrigation equipment but the bills are just too much to sustain the business,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He highlighted that the availability of cheap GMO agriculture imports from neighbouring South Africa was affecting their farming business.
Experts said urban agriculture was critical in alleviating poverty through provision and maintenance of food security to the citizens.
They said urban agriculture in developing and developed countries provides meaningful contributions towards household food security, which ensures availability, accessibility and affordability of unprocessed and processed foods.
