The Sunday News
Hazel Marimbiza, Sunday News Correspondent
WHILE agriculture forms an integral part of Zimbabwe’s economy, many people still think of it as back-breaking labour that offers little economic benefit.
However, things are slowly changing. A growing number of people are starting to see agriculture as a viable career option. Forty-five-old Mr Mcdonald Mamina is among a group of agri-entrepreneurs who are invigorating the agriculture sector with their innovative initiatives.
A graduate from the University of Zimbabwe, with a degree in Agriculture, majoring in Soil Science, Mr Mamina’s dream was to land a white-collar job in the city after finishing college.
“After graduation in 2009, my aspirations were just like anybody else: to get a good permanent job, buy a house and a car, and even buy a car for my parents. But all the jobs I got were not permanent. I had to renew my contracts every year. That taught me to plan for life without a job.
“I worked for about a year at the Zimbabwe Sugar Association Experiment Station as a Research Assistant. In October 2010, I worked as a Soil Scientist on a 10 000-hectare sugarcane estate owned by Addax Bioenergy in Sierra Leone, as a Soil Scientist. I then returned to Zimbabwe in December 2011, having set my mind on doing a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Development at Stellenbosch University located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. I completed the Postgraduate Diploma in 2014 with a distinction,” he added.
The Post Graduate Diploma that he did at Stellenbosch University motivated him to embrace farming.
“With farming, I had always done it since I was young, as I grew up at our rural homestead until I completed primary school. But I was conditioned to view it as hard, backward and unrewarding, as we grew mostly maize which didn’t do very well in our sandy soils.
“So, when I went to Stellenbosch University, they changed my mind set about it. The simple organic methods of farming were encouraged as they save the earth from pollution through carbon dioxide emissions and do not use chemicals that pollute underground water, rivers, plants, people, and animals. Most importantly they trained me to think holistically (seeing the bigger picture and inter-relatedness of things) instead of linearly. I developed a passion for sustainable agriculture, and asked myself how I could do it profitably,” he added.
However, the transition from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial one wasn’t smooth, it was bumpy for Mr Mamina.
“The greatest catalyst for the transformation was books. I read a lot of books on how to start my own farming business. Some of them are: Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, Who moved my Cheese, How to Think and Grow Rich, Rich Dad Poor Dad and Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. My mindset was primarily transformed by these books, they gave me renewed confidence to start and grow my own sustainable agriculture business,” he said.
He then started farming sugar beans, groundnuts and sweet potatoes at his rural home in Chivhu, located in Mashonaland East Province, about 142 km south of Harare.
“I also started breeding and selling indigenous chicken breeds popularly known as roadrunners. I also keep rabbits and goats for selling and I have planted so many different kinds of trees in my homestead. I also have about 5000 tree seedlings which I sell to clients in different parts of the country.
Marketing of our trees and farming products is done via social media, so our physical location doesn’t matter, as we do monthly deliveries throughout Zimbabwe, in partnership with Zupco and Extra City buses. We take the trees and food produce to Harare and from there dispatch them to various destinations using these buses,” said Mr Mamina.
Currently Mr Mamina is in the advanced stages of installing a borehole, which will increase the productivity of his rural homestead.
His vision is to build an organic permaculture system, where trees feed the chickens, rabbits and goats, while these animals provide the trees with manure.
“That permaculture system, and the trees will transform our rural homestead into an economic powerhouse. We want to show that rural goes beyond poorly growing, fertilizer hungry maize which degrades the land. We want to show that rural is the way to go, especially for youths who continue to migrate to cities without a strategy. This year we are planting sweet potatoes and beans between the rows of tree to supply us with healthy, organic food,” said Mr Mamina.
He highlighted that in five years’ time, he sees his business developing into helping thousands of clients throughout Zimbabwe and beyond to have a fruitful future, and directly or indirectly causing over a million trees to be planted in Zimbabwe and beyond.
While many people in Zimbabwe view agriculture as the domain for the less educated and consider rural to urban migration as the only ticket out of poverty, Mr Mamina has made a name for himself in the village.
“The reason why our generation doesn’t see farming as something lucrative is because of our background. When growing up, we were taught to go to school, to be doctors, to be nurses, to be lawyers, to be engineers, nobody pushed us to be farmers. So apparently, they did not push us to be practical, they pushed us to work those white-collar jobs,” he said.
Thanks to farmers such as Mr Mamina, a resurgence of interest among young farmers is happening. Mr Mamina’s success in agribusiness has caught the attention of many young people on social media where he regularly posts about his day-to-day life.
People are now showing the desire and hunger to go into farming through his social media posts and online workshops which have motivated particularly young people in the country and abroad to venture into agribusiness.
His social media accounts have gained a significant following, and his name has become a subject of discussion on various social media platforms thus and more and more young people are starting to see agriculture as a viable career path and an intellectually stimulating and economically sustainable career.
Like most developing countries, agriculture remains the mainstay of Zimbabwe’s economy.
Attracting people to rural agriculture is vital since nearly 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s population lives in rural areas.
In addition, agricultural activities provide employment and income for 60%-70% of the Zimbabwe’s population, supplies 60% of the raw materials required by the industrial sector and contributes 40% of Zimbabwe’s total export earnings, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Agriculture also contributes approximately 17% of the country’s gross domestic product. With people below the age of 35 constituting more than 50% of the country’s population, and given the country’s high youth unemployment rate, the agricultural sector offers huge potential for job creation.
The Zimbabwean government has over the years taken various initiatives to support agriculture.
Government sees the agricultural sector as key in uplifting the country’s food supply gap and to achieve food security at both household and national level. Therefore, efforts by citizens like Mr Mamina in uplifting the agricultural sector will go a long way in boosting Zimbabwe’s food security.
