Nutrition garden boost for Kamutsenzere
PEOPLE in Majerejere in the drought-prone Kamutsenzere area of Mt Darwin District are benefiting from a nutrition garden project which seek to boost their food and nutrition security.
The World Food Programme (WFP) irrigation project has brought relief to this area which has been hit by consecutive droughts.
The project funded by the Japanese Government and implemented by WFP and World Vision is supporting some 74 households which benefit directly or indirectly more than 1 000 people.
Japan channelled the US$ 2,7 million funding support to the WFP to help build resilience for more than 28 500 smallholder farmers in 24 districts for more than a year.
The 74-member Majerejere nutrition garden project which was started last year is now bearing fruits.
Farmers were supported with irrigation infrastructure and this has enabled them to produce horticultural crops throughout the year helping to improve household food and nutrition security.
Nutrition gardens have improved livelihoods and most farmers said they were now able to generate income to pay fees for their children and meet other basic needs.
Majerejere community project chairperson, Mrs Logic Manzi said the project had transformed their livelihoods in a big way.
“We used to rely on rain-fed agriculture in the past and since the area is prone to droughts, we never got any meaningful yields,” she said.
“This WFP project has brought so much relief to us. Because of water availability we can now grow crops throughout the year.”
The farmers were now growing maize, rape, onions, butternuts and sugar - beans among others.
Mr Lazarus Chawanda, a project member said the farmers were using organic manure to grow health foods and reduce production costs.
“Organic food is also healthy and many people are now turning to organically produced foods,” he said.
“We have a local market at Chiswiti, Morongwe, Kananga and Chiutsi where we sell our profuce. We are still facing problems to reach more markets due to rising transport costs. We end up drying our vegetables in some cases after failing to market them on time. Our produce are perishables and we have to be sell with a certain time frame.”
The smallholder farmers were also diversifying and expanding their project through establishing the nurseries and an orchard.
“We have established a tree nursery with both indigenous and exotic fruit trees. Soon we will be selling the vegetables and fruits to our communities increasing our income from the project,” said Mr Chawanda.
The farmers have also managed to buy goats which they sell to fund their operations when the need arises.
Most of the plot holders said they were planning to venture into other income generating projects using proceeds from the project.
More than nine million people in Southern Africa are facing severe hunger following a harsh drought that hit the entire subcontinent in the 2018-19 cropping season, according to the United Nations.
The WFP estimated that about 9,2 million in southern Africa were ‘ acutely food insecure,’ and that the number could rise to more than 12 million in the lean period between now and March 2020.
The UN agency plans to assist approximately 5,4 million people with life-saving assistance and critical livelihood interventions in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Madagascar, and Malawi.