By Rex Mphisa
At a time when most people aged 83 have retired, Maria Ndou’s life appears to be starting!
She suddenly has extra cash, can spoil her husband and even give him three healthy meals a day.
Ndou lives at Tshanswilikiti Village 20 kilometres north of Beitbridge and is part of the 27 families forming her village’s Business Unit venture.Their market garden initiated on March 15 this year is already making them proud and paying dividends, also feeding 171 dependants.
Ordinarily at her age, Ndou would be sidelined to stay at home, and look after grandchildren, but she is active and takes part in manually watering their crops like others.Her life is blooming at that golden age. She is able bodied and is now able to take good care of the love of her life who, with age, is now visually challenged.
“I never knew I would have extra cash in my life. I had days of misery but these are gone. I eat three meals and have fresh food. I am able to look after my lovely husband who is blind. Frankly i am a person who is happy,” Ndou said in an interview.
Her family is one of the 28 benefitting from the Tshanswilikiti Village Business Unit which runs a thriving garden, one of the 55 such established across Beitbridge District.Ndou’s family and 27 others started their project on March 15 this year and dividends are already visible with rewards reflecting on their smiles.
When Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Ompile Marupi and several officials from his ministry toured Tshanswilikiti, a different aura hovered above the village that has over decades reeled from series of droughts.
“We are establishing these countrywide. This is one of the ways we will arrest labour migration. This will empower villagers. It will create food security, the benefits are numerous,” Marupi told journalists after a tour of two business units, one at Zwivhuya.
Beitbridge Rural District Council chairman Oscar Chiromo said the solar powered boreholes and the gardens were a masterstroke in villages and increased social interaction among villagers.
“It becomes easy to communicate development issues and other subjects communities are concerned about. Besides nutrition has been improved and dependency on handouts slowly being eradicated,” he said.
“We are planning to have youths come on board these projects and as council we want to help find markets, even create contract farming so they get ready cash. These projects are going to change the outlook of the district which was known to depend on handouts,” said Chiromo.
Tshamano Mudau, the village head and part of the 27 families said it is interesting to become suppliers of Beitbridge market just in a few months when they turned from being hopeless.
“As you know Beitbridge was a perennial food relief recipient but this has changed. We are suppliers. We do not look for handouts and are self sufficient. It gives confidence to be self reliant and stories have changed from where to get the next meal to what is our expansion plan,” said Mudau.
“Our first crop was maize and we sell fresh mealies to the market. We also had beans and we pare on a year long cropping different cash crops,” he said.
Mudau said the plot over two hectares was under maize, beans carrots and other vegetables all toured by Marupi and his delegation some recording the success story.
“About 171 people feed from this enterprise. We have just started and our strength is that we share a common vision of changing the mindset of our youths into farmers. Bigger things are yet to come,” he said.
The Government has deeply agricultural extension officers who help the villagers on crop management and running of the scheme.At Tshanswilikiti extension officer Comfort Manjengwa said it is pleasing to notice villagers are already have diversification plans.
Manjengwa said because Beitbridge is primarily a livestock district the villagers plan to grow fodder to see them through drought years.Besides the villagers also plan to have chicken, goat and sheep rearing projects that will make the business complete.
“We need to open up space for fodder. The villagers are excited and now realise wht they have been buying from other places can be grown at home. They are keen to expand. They are keen to try new crops and i am here to assist,” she said.
“We are going to have space for fruit trees. As it is i am still discussing with them on why it is important to have our soils tested and we have informed cropping,” Manjengwa said.
“We are also encouraging that these schemes have drip systems that are not labour intensive. At Tshanswilikiti villagers use buckets to water crops but we are happy the one at Zwivhuya has come with the drip system.,” she said.
The drip system would ensure increased hectorage and more work is directed at the tendering of crops than watering.While over the years Beitbridge’s cropping story has been gloomy, there seems to be light on the horizon.