4-H Zimbabwe Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development hosted its 2nd edition Rural Young Women Capacity building and Awards yesterday at Seke Rural District -Mashonaland East Province. The event mainly focused on empowering women on conservative agriculture and horticulture, mainly focusing on the importance of soil testing, organic fertilizer specialization and crop rotation in relation to soil quality. Seke District Women’s Quota Member of Parliament, Honorable Tatenda Mavetera, commended 4-H Zimbabwe Foundation together with Deutsch Connect in complementing the efforts of the Government on ensuring food security and capacitating local female farmers in rural Zimbabwe through indigenous climate change adaptation techniques. She encouraged local farmers in her constituency to adapt these techniques as a way of mitigating climate change and improve yields. “We would like to thank 4-H Zimbabwe Foundation for working with young women in our district to fight hunger and poverty. Women are the most vulnerable population and such programs which are aiming at empowering women are good. Hon T. Mavetera further said that, “We would appreciate it if these trainings are done in the entire Mashonaland East province and also in all rural districts in the country. She also added that establishing women led community nutrition gardens will also be idle to compliment the efforts of the Government under Horticulture Recovery Plan for income generating projects and sustainable livelihoods for the marginalised rural communities Miss Tatenda Mhishi who emerged as a winner for best women farmer in Seke Rural District said, “I am happy to have been recognized as the champion famer for the year 2022. As a widow, this award means a lot to me and I want to encourage other women in this district and in Zimbabwe to consider farming as a noble business.
As we speak, I am able to send all my children to school through farming and be able to take care of my family,” said Mhishi Tatenda. Speaking after touring the fields, the Agritex Supervisor for Seke District said it is important for farmers to know the type of soil they have so that they may have the insight on what to plant and which fertilizers to use and encourage farmers to take notes from such capacity building sessions and apply the same knowledge in their fields. Mr Simbarashe Mukaro who was representing Empower Bank spoke about the importance of financial management in any business set-up. He encouraged farmers to keep records for their business and encouraged all young women to come to the bank and get assistance on loans and other services.
4-H Zimbabwe Foundation Director, Mr John Muchenje highlighted the programs which are being done by the organisation in ensuring sustainable food security and enhancing climate resilience amongst rural farmers. As part of our work, we desire to see rural communities in Zimbabwe who are developed, capacitated and empowered to mitigate and adapt to this current global warming. He said our intervention includes organizing communities into clubs, facilitating drilling of solar powered boreholes, tanks and drip irrigation kits and creating income generating projects for the communities. “The prevailing harsh climate changes have resulted in low rainfall and such gardens will enable women to have sustainable projects continuously throughout the year for sustainable livelihoods and also have access to clean water ” said Muchenje. The partners who are supporting this program are Deutsch Connect, Mhuri Farm, EmpowerBank, Seedco and Syngenta.
