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Fortunate Gora Mash West Correspondent
The Zanu-PF Women’s League has started training its members in various empowerment projects including tomato and sweet potato farming.

The programme, which was launched in Tengwe, Hurungwe District, by Zanu-PF National Secretary for Women’s Affairs Cde Mabel Chinomona, is expected to economically empower the women while contributing to Zimbabwe’s socio-economic development.

The programme was running under the theme “Farming as a business – Beyond food security status”.

More than 500 women are taking part in the training that was being conducted across the province’s seven administrative districts.

Addressing participants, Cde Chinomona said the programme was an opportunity for women to make money and take care of their families.

“Let us practise commercial agriculture and stop thinking of subsistence farming. This is a business forum in which we are focusing on farming as a business.

“If we take full advantage of this training we will definitely improve our lives as individuals and we will also automatically boost the economy of our nation,” she said.

The knowledge gained through the programme, Cde Chinomona said, will contribute to successful implementation of Government’s Command Agriculture programme.

The Zanu-PF Women’s League, she said, was heeding President Mnangagwa’s call for Zimbabweans to be less politically active while concentrating more on economics.

“Elections are behind us, so let us rebuild our economy. You can start small and expand until you grow your farming business. We have capacitated you to farm effectively and profitably,” she said.

Cde Chinomona said her office would from January next year start following up on the beneficiaries of the programme while monitoring how they would be running their business.

Minister of State for Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs Cde Mary Mliswa applauded President Mnangagwa’s leadership for spearheading women’s empowerment projects.

She also urged women to pay back the favour entrusted in them by producing yields that improve the socio–economic development of Zimbabwe through the agriculture sector.

“We want to thank President Mnangagwa and his team for the support towards women empowerment. Colleagues, if we fail to grow tomatoes and sweet potatoes then it means we will be failures,” she said

Minister Mliswa said women should not hesitate to form cooperatives because there was a ready market for their produce.

She said Hurungwe district was endowed with rich soils that can support agricultural production.

The training programme is part of the Zanu-PF Women’s League’s 100-Day Programme of Action and has since spread across Mashonaland West province.

The programme was conducted by the Hurudza Farming Production Tips Team and Zimbabwe Women Rural Development Trust.