Farmers at Mabhikwa Village Business Unit in Lupane district which was established in June 2024 have started realizing an income from the garden. Ms Nomathemba Khumalo, one of the beneficiaries said, “We started cultivation of crops on the 3rd of February 2025. We cultivated crops on three blocks. Our first crop was the Walthum variety of butternuts and the Nanties variety of carrots. We managed to harvest and sell butternut that gave us an income of US$245. From the carrots we made US$171. After convening a meeting, we decided not to share the money but to use it to buy inputs for the second crop cycle as well as maintenance of the infrastructure.”
She added, “In the second crop cycle we planted 2 788 cabbage plants, sugar beans as well as 11 288 onion plants. We have harvested our sugar bean crop and the yield was 400kgs. We sell the beans in different quantities. Each cup costs US$1 while a 5 litre container costs US$10. We sell 20kg of beans for US$35. We are still in the process of selling these crops. So far we have made US$560 from the cabbages and US$340 from sugar beans and sales are ongoing. We are in the process of selling the onions as well. After harvesting the beans, we have planted the Fabiola variety of cabbages.”
Another farmer, Lucy Luphahla, said, “We are happy as farmers for this intervention. We used to have difficulties accessing vegetables for our meals. Now things have changed as we are now able to grow a variety of nutritious crops. We will now be able to pay school fees for our children as we are selling these horticulture crops to different markets.
We have an off-taker from Lupane who picks up the vegetables and sells them in Lupane where he has a supermarket, another off taker from Hwange as well as walk-in customers from the community. Our school in the community has a feeding programme and they buy cabbages, and onions from the garden.”
