The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Features Reporter
A FAMILY that prays together stays together is an old spiritual adage that expresses the need for a spirit of oneness and unity in doing things. It is not confined to praying but to other spheres of life, be they social, political or economic.
While it may not rhyme or be as spiritually significant, it is socially and economically important to say a family that does business together grows together. The spirit of togetherness is what prompted Mr Phineas Tshabalala (67) and his wife Mrs Edith Tshabalala (64) of Redleaf village in Nyamandlovu in the sprawling Umguza District to devise a family farming business concept.
On a farm of close to 50 hectares, projects they are carrying out include poultry where there are four fowl runs with a holding capacity ranging from 500 to 1 000, a horticulture project where they are doing tomatoes and cabbages. The family also keeps rabbits, pigeon and is also into fishery. A field of close to two hectares is for maize farming. They have a herd of over 75 cattle.
Mr Tshabalala said the concept was brought about by the need to make sure that everyone on the farm contributed and benefited from the projects in their multiplicity.
“What we were producing was not enough for their children — Bhekani Mlilo (47) and Njabulo Tshabalala (29) to get returns from assisting on the farm. We realised it would create dissatisfaction among them to say we are helping the elders to produce but what we are getting out of this is not enough. My wife and I then decided to give them free shares in the poultry project,” said Mr Tshabalala.
He said from a batch of 2 000 chicks they had bought with his wife after selling the chickens to their contract partner Hamara, they split the sum among the four of them (Mr Tshabalala, Mrs Tshabalala, Bhekani Mlilo and Njabulo Tshabalala).
Mrs Tshabalala said even though the capital was from the parents they saw it wise to say each person gets a share of 500 birds.
“Once we had sold the birds and split the money among the four of us. We then said each person as a shareholder could now contribute to the purchase of the next batch. However, at first, they did not want to part away with the money they got. The excitement of having much money made them a bit shaky but the father stood his ground. On my own as a mother I could have been too soft on them,” she said.
She said with Simiso Moyo (30), a childhood friend of their son Njabulo was at school by that time. Mrs Tshabalala said when he came back, she had to give him her spot so that he could be part of others.
“Simiso has become part of the family now having grown up together with our son. As a mother I stepped out and he took my spot so that the four of them continue. They then made contributions towards 500 broiler and 300 sasso chickens, and these did very well.”
Mrs Tshabalala said the batches were sold and a profit of about US$2 400 was made and then shared equally.
“I’m glad to say the boys (Bhekani and Njabulo) bought their own cows. As for Simiso, he managed to start building a house for his mother, a widow in Cowdray Park. Our hope is that once Simiso finishes building the house he can then start buying cows like the others.”
Mr Tshabalala said the concept of free share was aimed at creating employment for the three men who were helping them out on the farm.
He said that he and his wife saw that the men could still do much better on the farm than to go out and look for jobs.
“The aim is to make them realise that they can turn this piece of land into something which can benefit them. We became equal partners, since they did not have enough capital to kick-start anything, as parents it was wise to provide for them through the free share concept,” he said.
Having received training from a local non-profit making organisation, Turning Matabeleland Green (TMG) on how to take farming as a business the family continues to record resounding success in poultry and horticultural projects.
Mrs Tshabalala said she and the three men underwent training in 2018, while the husband who was away at work that time did training in 2020.
She said the training was an eye opener for them and assisted them move from subsistence farming to commercial farming.
“I got to hear about TMG at a ward council meeting and I got interested in their trainings as they were turning around the lives of many other small-scale farmers. We attended the trainings for TMG 1 and 2 and from the training we got so much excitement and were very energetic to start doing farming as a business.
“We had no fowl run here but the way we were taught and from the tours we saw how structures should be done.
Some of the chickens reared by Mr Phineas Tshabalala and his wife Edith in Nyamandlovu in Umguza District
When we came back, we did not have bricks, we started off with mud houses when we started our poultry project,” said Mrs Tshabalala.
She said their first batch did so well and they used the money to build a brick fowl run.
Mrs Tshabalala said they then went on to build the second one, then third and fourth, putting batches of 500 chicks in each fowl run.
“For the market we were taking them to Hamara where they then pay us and from that money, we have always restocked.
“From our last batch of 750 we took 200 to Hamara and they gave us ZWL$80 000. Payment is either at the bank or EcoCash. We then managed to go back and take another batch of 500, which costs around ZWL$50 000 inclusive of feed and medication.”
Njabulo Tshabalala said the training assisted them to consider taking various projects that work well for the ecosystem.
“Agricultural biodiversity also performs ecosystem services such as soil and water conservation, maintenance of soil fertility and biota, and pollination, all of which are essential to human survival. We are doing horticulture, growing cabbages, tomatoes and vegetables such as rape and spinach and soon we will also be venturing into potatoes. We also have poultry, rabbits, pigeons and fishery projects and soon we will be doing bee-keeping.”
TMG value chain development officer, Mrs Natasha Marara who is an agribusiness trainer said they were impressed with the progress the Tshabalala family had made on various projects since the training they undertook.
She said: “We encourage smallholder farmers after receiving the training to start with what they have. You don’t need a very huge capital, from US$10 you can grow your garden and sell the produce to then start a small fowl run which you will expand as you go.”
TMG technical trainer and community engagement officer, Mr Caleb Ncube said following up on farmers who have undergone training was key to ascertain the progress they would have made and find out the challenges they could be facing and what kind of assistance would they need.
TMG was formed in 2013 and seeks to develop a network of competent farmer partners to meet the country’s growing food and export needs.
It has to date trained more than 14 000 small-scale farmers countrywide covering such topics as horticulture, poultry (broilers, layers and sasso), dairy, bee-keeping, pecan nuts, business plan and record keeping, marketing and opportunities in Zimbabwe among others.
