The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
FOR almost a decade, one of Matabeleland region’s most enterprising women farmers, Ms Rosemary Moyo (51) has toiled to cultivate her small portions of land, defying all odds to come up with massive crop produce with each harvest, yet her plea for a substantial piece of land has not received much attention.
Ms Moyo’s journey into farming reads more of a fictitious novel story, yet it is real. As the old adage goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, such is Ms Moyo’s entrance into farming. Starting off from growing a merely 3 000 plants of tomatoes eight years ago, Ms Moyo has grown in leaps and bounds to be one of the biggest suppliers of horticultural produce to reputable supermarket chains in Bulawayo.
“I developed a passion in farming from admiration. I happen to be part of the first group of women that was sent to China by Government in 2008 under the Look East Policy and when we were there, I realised that most of the women that were part of our group, especially those from Harare, were buying farming equipment and even suggested we tour farms in that country. Upon returning home, I visited some of the women to see their agricultural enterprises and I was very impressed and the rest is history,” she said.
Ms Moyo, a single mother with five children, the eldest aged 29, started farming in 2012 utilising almost a hectare and a half of the area she acquired for the construction of a private school, Mary Rose Learning Centre at Emganwini suburb.
“I really started small, I started with 3 000 plants of tomatoes. In 2016, I then leased an eight-hectare plot at Umguza Irrigation Lots. Although I employ a handful of people, I’m hands on and with the assistance of my children, we have managed to grow and sustain our agricultural enterprises against all odds. Apart from selling our produce to individuals, we also have contracts with four supermarkets (names supplied). Farming has really transformed my livelihood and I have even managed to send two of my children for further studies in China and Poland, all because of the ‘tomato’”, said the elated enterprising farmer.
According to a study by the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO), approximately 80 percent of women live in the communal areas where they constitute 61 percent of the farmers and provide 70 percent of the labour. Thus, the work of women farmers is essential for food security. Most women are unpaid family workers. Rural women work 16 to 18 hours a day, spending at least 49 percent of their time on agricultural activities and about 25 percent on domestic activities.
Although women contribute more to the country’s agricultural sector compared to men, very few own farms, making it impossible for them to embark on commercial farming, which is the same predicament Ms Moyo finds herself in.
Despite proving to all and sundry that she is productive, Ms Moyo’s plea for expanse land to enhance her productivity have proved futile yet a substantial number of farmers that got vast swathes of land under Government’s land reform programme are unproductive.
“My growth in agriculture is imminent, I’m currently renting a plot but if I were to get my own substantial land to farm, I will definitely increase productivity immensely. I have exhausted all the channels and processes you can think of towards acquiring a farm but all efforts have been in vain. I, however, pray that one day the relevant authorities will take note of how productive I have been through utilising a small piece of land and allocate me a much bigger space,” said Ms Moyo.
The enterprising farmer says her last hope of getting substantial land to work on now hinges on being considered as one of the beneficiaries of the farms being downsized by the Government. The Government has streamlined the sizes of all individual farms in the country’s five ecological regions, in a move that would see more people having access to land after failing to benefit from the land reform programme.
The move is also aimed at boosting capacity utilisation of land following concerns that some farms were unnecessarily big and under-utilised.
The Government compulsorily acquired more than 12 million hectares of arable land previously occupied by the minority white farmers. The downsizing of farms, which has been ongoing, starts with recommendations from the respective provincial lands committees. Ms Moyo said for one to be a successful farmer, they ought to embrace farming as a business.
“Horticulture is a lucrative venture especially if one obtains a market but if you just grow produce without a market, you risk running into a loss. My other advice to aspiring women or farmers in general, is that they should first of all learn to embrace farming as a business if they are to succeed,” she said.
Although, Ms Moyo is more into production of horticultural produce such as cabbages, tomatoes, cucumbers, beetroot, lettuce, carrots, green pepper among others, she also grows cereals in the form of maize and wheat.
“I’m also looking forward to venture into fish farming and poultry and we have started construction of infrastructure to that effect,” she said.
@DNsingo
