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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu Bulawayo Bureau

Lead Farmers in rural areas have been given bicycles to ease their mobility challenges as they carry out advisory services as a strategy to boost agriculture production under the climate proofed Pfumvudza/ Intwasa programme.

A Lead Farmer is an individual who has been elected by a village to voluntarily assist in the delivery of a maximum of three good agricultural practices/ technologies that are enterprise-specific and is trained in those technologies.

Their role is mainly to disseminate farming-related information to farmers, educate fellow farmers and to make follow-ups on the progress that has been made by farmers and to encourage those lagging behind.

The concept is helping in fast cascading agricultural knowledge to villagers to minimise losses due to bad farming practices.

Eighty-nine lead farmers from four wards in Insiza District, on Monday, received bicycles. The lead farmer approach is one of the approaches being used by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development to reach all farmers across the county. One of the Lead Farmers, Ms Siduduzile Ndlovu from Thuthuka Village in Ward 1, said it will now be easier for her to perform her duties. “I am responsible for 20 farmers and it was always a hustle for me to go around all their homesteads educating them and checking on the progress that they have made. Now that I have this bicycle, I have the means to move around my area fast.

“Walking was a great challenge and sometimes I would fail to cover my target area within the set time,” she said.

Ms Ndlovu said she was raring to go and impart valuable farming knowledge to fellow farmers.

Ms Merjury Sola from Mpumelelo Village in Ward 1 said the intervention will help Lead Farmers to effectively carry out their duties.

She said the farming practice had evolved for the better.

“In the past farming was just an activity that was done without applying much technique. Now the practice has evolved with the main target being to ensure that farmers maximise production. In the past, we thought that farming could only be done with draught power but now farmers can dig basins without animals and go on to plant and record good yields,” said Ms Sola.

“Farmers now have to follow certain measurements when they are spacing their crops and the basins have to face the direction where the water is flowing from.

“The farmers also have to harvest their crops at the right time. These are the techniques that we are urging farmers to take up as Lead Farmers.

“The bicycle I have received will make it easier for me to make a follow-up on the farmers under my supervision,” she said.

Mr Fredrick Vundla, a Lead Farmer from Phikelela Village in Ward 2 said the concept has helped to bring farmers to identify with the New Dispensation’s vision of ensuring every citizen is able to make a living from the land.

He said farmers were responding well when they were being motivated by their peers. Mr Vundla said farming was his passion and he was happy to impart the knowledge he had acquired to fellow farmers.

Insiza District Agritex officer, Mr Augustine Mhike said with the summer cropping season underway, the bicycles will enhance production as farmers will receive information on time.

“He said the move by the Government to capacitate the Lead Farmers was part of the accelerated rural industrialisation drive.

Mr Mhike said the target was to reach out to farmers in all parts of the country.

“As Government seeks to transform the agricultural sector one of the target areas is to reach out to all farmers, even those in the remote parts of the country.

“We want every farmer to be educated and informed as this will help to ensure farmers are fully productive. That’s the reason why we have engaged Lead Farmers to assist in training and disseminating information.

“They complement the extension workers who may not be able to cover all the ground,” he said.

Mr Mhike said farming was a Science that should be taught to farmers.

Matabeleland South provincial livestock officer, Mr Hatityi Muchemwa urged the Lead Farmers to go out in numbers and vigorously work towards ensuring that the district records a bumper harvest.

He urged them to desist from abusing the bicycles.

Mr Muchemwa said the cycles were included in the Government’s broader plan to transform the agricultural sector.

“As Lead Farmers, you have received training in the farming practice. This knowledge you have received isn’t for you to keep but to share with other farmers. Go and preach the gospel of farming so that you can change the face of this district and develop it,” he said.