By Callisto Nhamo
Sheron Zvidzai (30) is an agroecological farmer practising container gardening at her homestead in Chivenge village in ward 13 under Chief Mupakwa in Bikita district. Sheron says container gardening has helped her to provide adequate food for her family and has improved her food self-sufficiency.
“Container gardening has helped me to maximize production. l grow diverse vegetables and tomatoes thereby improving nutrition at household level and I am able to sell surplus to other community members,” says Sheron.
Sheron says before starting her agroecology interventions, she was not doing any sustainable agriculture because she felt her piece of land was too small for any farming activities.
She says she was exposed to container gardening through Schools and Colleges Permaculture (SCOPE) Zimbabwe, a member of the PELUM Zimbabwe network, working in her district. Soon after learning about container gardening, Sheron says she established her own garden and since then she has never experienced any vegetables and tomatoes shortages.
“We got training from SCOPE Zimbabwe on land use and design. I then started my project on a 8 meters by 5 meters piece of land. l collected some used car tyres and recycled plastic containers. l then prepared a compost so as to have fertile soils to fill up the containers,” says Sheron.
Sheron has more than 40 different containers and she is growing more than 9 types of vegetables and tomatoes and sells her produce from USD 1 upwards. She says she makes at least USD 20 per week through selling the produce.
“As a mother of two living with four people from my extended family, l am under pressure to earn money so that I can able to buy my children some basics and always ensure we have food in the house. Container gardening has helped me to generate some income and l am happy that l am contributing towards the welfare of my family,” says Sheron.
Melody Zivanai (35) an Agricultural Technical Extension officer working in ward 13 in Bikita district says container gardening is a sustainable intervention for limited space farming.
“Container gardening is an effective way of producing crops on a small piece of land. For women, it is a good intervention because it is not limited by cultural issues such land ownership,” she says.
Ranias Chivenge (50) the village head says his village is one of the drought prone areas of Bikita and women struggle to provide vegetables and tomatoes for their families. He adds that container gardening is proving to be a game changer since it requires minimal water supplies.
“This intervention is a good one because our area is drought prone so this reduces water loss by making maximum use of the little water. I am grateful and would love to see this being implemented by other women in our community,” he says.
