An Agriculture Producer Group from Kwekwe has expressed satisfaction with the results of a sorghum demo hosted by one of their group members. The demo plot was supported by the Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project.
The chairperson of the Ebenezer Agriculture Producer Group, Crescentia Chipangura said, “Out of our Pfumvudza plot we managed to harvest 19 buckets of sorghum, each bucket weighs 20kg. We are happy with the yield because we had cultivated a small area, measuring 16 by 36 metres. We learnt that if you follow advice on conservation farming, you can get a good yield from a small area. As farmers we also learnt that conservation agriculture that is practised with mulching retains moisture for long periods. There are minimal weeds that grow around the crops so we had minimal weeding of the plot.
The fact that you put manure and fertiliser into the small pit means that the ground is very fertile so your crop grows well. Community members have been making enquiries about how we managed to grow such a good crop.”
Another farmer Mrs Idah Ndlovu said, “As group members for Ebenezer, we are now looking forward to the news season so that we can go and grow what we learnt here in our own fields. My husband and I are committed to this method of farming as we have realised that it ensures food security for the family. We realise that we can harvest big yields by cultivating a small area. We have learnt that there is no need to cultivate unnecessarily large fields and harvesting very little. This Pfumvudza method that we were trained on is good.”
Edmore Mamombe, a member of the Ebenezer group said, “We have realised that this sorghum crop is good. In areas where there is little rainfall, sorghum farmers do not go hungry. I notice that all farmers that cultivated sorghum this last season are food secure and will make money through selling grain to those who are food insecure.
