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Elton Manguwo

THE Presidential Rural Horticulture Scheme launched by President Mnangagwa late last year has vastly transformed the lives of villagers in Mangwe, Masvingo and Chiweshe, as the country moves towards achieving a middle-income economy by 2030.

The programme, which is being spearhead by the Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (ARDA), is expected to benefit 35 000 villages countrywide by providing each community with a hectare-sized garden with a functional solar-powered borehole for irrigation when fully operational.

“It’s still in its early stages but the programme is showing clear signs of aggressive growth, as we have involved the Agriculture Advisory and Rural Development Services, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and Agriculture Marketing Authority (AMA), which are key players in the agriculture industry”, ARDA chairperson Mr Ivan Craig said earlier today.

In addition, the community gardens will be equipped with animal water troughs, a fish pond while Forestry Commission will provide fruit trees for the orchards.

Furthermore, ZINWA will support the community garden programme through its 12 high-impact dams that will provide irrigation water sources and the water authority will also lead in the drilling of boreholes to areas that do not have easy access to dam irrigation infrastructure.

Moreover, the idea behind the community gardens is in trying to establish nutrition hubs for villagers whilst generating income for their communities and in turn mitigate the problem of high unemployment numbers.

Mr Craig highlighted how the youth with agricultural expertise and qualifications would be tasked with managing the gardens in their respective areas.

“As Agriculture Advisory and Rural Development Services our role will be to extend technical and advisory support to the targeted communities,” said chief director of the entity, Professor Obert Jiri.

The community horticulture gardens will be focused on tallying production levels with market demand and AMA will assist in conducting market surveys plus crafting sustainable business models and market linkages for farmers so that they can enjoy competitive producer prices on the market.

“We have often seen how farmers are aimlessly producing crops and flooding the market with one crop therefore realising low prices thereafter,” Mr Craig also chipped in.

Professor Jiri further responded saying: “The production levels are good, communities are engaged and happy, thrust is business and at these garden sites farming is being taken as a business, the Mangwe community now has a clear record-keeping system and has a clear profit share model.”