The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE country is said to be lagging behind in adopting new farming technologies such as hydroponics farming, methods that have huge potential to provide nutritional produce and job security particularly for young people.
Hydroponics is the latest in the line of advanced farming techniques. It is a practice of growing plants in nutrient solutions without the use of soil while it has the advantage of conserving water because it is recirculated and reused.
In an interview, Ministry of Land, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Chief Director Agriculture Advisory Services and Rural Development, Professor Obert Jiri said very few farmers in the country were doing hydroponics farming.
“Hydroponics is practiced by very few farmers in Zimbabwe, while the farming technique was a very successful one. There is a huge potential in this space to provide nutritional produce and job security, particularly for young people,” said Prof Jiri.
He said the major reasons for the limited number of farmers in hydroponics included lack of knowledge for setting up and management of the infrastructure of the crops to be grown; capital to acquire materials and market access for the produce since horticulture was highly perishable.
The Chief Director said more farmers and youth could tap into the opportunity through various means including contract arrangements with key markets who require the products produced from hydroponics.
“The government can support through agronomy and extension support and training in specific aspects of hydroponic and horticultural production.”
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development working together with Danchurchaid (DCA), World Food Programme (WFP) and Agritex has been training urban farmers on the hydroponics farming system as part of efforts to build resilience among vulnerable communities.
Agricultural extension officer for Bulawayo Ms Treggie Mpofu, a horticultural specialist said using the different structures available for hydroponics, one could do leafy crops such as broccoli, rape, lettuce, tubers and bulb onions among others.
In a backyard in Northend Suburb, Bulawayo, a mother of two, Ms Stella Tshuma is using hydroponics to grow vegetables for some restaurants in the CBD.
Ms Tshuma, whose day job is as a secretary, has always had a passion for farming, but had no land on which to plant.
“Hydroponic farming is the future of farming; you can have a small system or a big system in an area with limited space. After a long time failing to get a plot l have managed to do farming with the limited space l have in my backyard,” she said.
She said through hydroponics farming she was delivering lettuce, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and bulb onions which she was delivering to restaurants.
“What you need to grow these crops using hydroponics is some few liters of water, hence you will be saving water, you will have water for your vegetables, you will have water for your home usage,” she said.
Ms Tshuma said the income she was getting from hydroponics was much more than she earned from her 7am to 5pm jobs and it was catering for most of her utilities and children’s school fees among others.
She said the main advantage of the futuristic method was that farmers can have total control over the hydroponic system, which can allow them to create farms in locations where soil conditions are too poor to support conventional farming.
