The Sunday News
Nkosilathi Sibanda, Business Correspondent
HORTICULTURE production in Bulawayo’s community gardens is set to improve as farmers commit to supply fresh vegetable produce all year round following the drilling of boreholes by the Coca-Cola Foundation and DanChurch Aid.
Community gardens, an initiative of the City of Bulawayo, are found in almost every high-density suburb. Women constitute the bulk of the farmers who cultivate different types of vegetables for sale and household food supplement.
Over the years, some farmers have abandoned the agriculture enterprise, citing difficulty in watering their plants due to shortages of water in the city.
Even in plentiful rainy seasons, farmers opted to plant maize elsewhere and left community garden spaces to gather grass and bushes. With a well-defined water shortage problem, residents relied on horticulture produce from peri-urban farms at Umguza, Figtree and Esigodini.
This has had an effect on pricing and timely availability of fresh farm produce, especially with the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions.
On realising the dire water situation faced by residents, the Coca-Cola Foundation and DanChurch Aid put up a partnership to drill six boreholes, that have brought a sigh of relief to many horticulture farmers in the townships.
The boreholes project was launched at Emakhandeni suburb on Thursday and it cost US$50 000. Residents who partake in farming in the community gardens told Sunday News that they were ready to get back to the fields once more.
“This is what I call empowerment. It has been long, we have been pleading with the council to drill boreholes so that we do vegetable gardening,” said Ms Norma Dube, a resident of Emakhandeni who is part of a group of farmers who started a vegetable business in 2008.
“We had given up on our garden. With no water we just couldn’t do anything. Now that Coca-Cola has drilled a borehole for us, we are ready to farm again.”
Ms Dube and her neighbours would grow various vegetables, which they would sell to local shops, with part of the money realised channelled to paying rates and school fees.
Residents in other parts of the city in Nkulumane, Magwegwe, Pumula, Entumbane, Emganwini and Mpopoma where community gardens once flourished, also expressed joy at the timeous drilling of the boreholes. A local farmer, Mr Winston Babbage said provision of reliable water sources was key in boosting agriculture at community level in cities and towns.
“This is more like bringing sustainability to the people. Community gardens are a vital resource to livelihood. Urban agriculture transforms lives and when water is available, farmers must take up the initiative,” he said.
Coca-Cola Zimbabwe country manager Mr Milidzani Ncube said the boreholes will improve the conditions of living in the city.
“We believe that the project will help to improve the living conditions of the Bulawayo community on the other hand and carry on the well documented traditional friendship between the Coca-Cola system and the people of Bulawayo,” said Mr Ncube.
The DanChurch Aid country director Mr Mads Shack Lindegard said the boreholes will also be a support structure for sustainable community initiatives.
“With partners like the Coca-Cola Foundation and City of Bulawayo, we are changing lives and supporting sustainable development,” said Mr Lindegard.
Besides presenting an opportunity to revive their gardens, the boreholes were seen as an immediate measure to address sanitation issues at a time when the country is fighting the spread of Covid-19.
