Zvikomborero farm is located along Harare- Masvingo road in Chivhu. The farm is owned by a family who inherited it from their late grandfather. They have 500 hectares and rent other 700 hectares from nearest farms to make a total of 1200hectares. They have more than 500 cattle, 50 pigs, 10 000 layers, 800 goats and an inorganic vegetable garden. A visit to Zvikomborero farm on the 13th of May was worth visiting for me.
What inspired me is that the owner of the farm is a woman and also her daughter with an Accounting background has managed to study and venture into the field within a period of one year. This ensured me that even though I am not from an Agricultural background, passion and commitment will eventually take me there. Success is not determined by gender or your background. Most women regard agricultural activities as dirty things which are mainly meant for men, however having a conversation with the project owner l found that Agriculture is not dirty but it’s actually gold worth billions of dollars. You will only have great impact in the economy of the country and influence when you are your own boss rather than working for other people. I was so inspired and am great excited that l would integrate my marketing experience with Agriculture, thus marketing my own products rather than promoting other people’s.
The pigs, goats and layers attracted my attention due to the fact that you can have a lot of them in a small piece of land as well as short payback period unlike beef production. We have therefore noted the importance of diversifying into different projects and also value addition where the daughter of the farm owner told us that they make more money from selling using their own butcher rather than auctions and other sales you could have. The farm’s income base has increased from selling of meat to groups of students and farmers who visit the farm in search of knowledge.
We also had the opportunity to learn about grasses to feed goats like Lucerne, star grass, katambora and how to manage them.
Of great importance at the farm was biosecurity. They ensure safety for their animals and have adopted what they called SHEQ.
Ø S for safety- here they make sure that both workers and animals are in a safe environment They always look if there are any hazards in the farm and work on how to avoid them.
Ø H is for health- this includes animal health thus biosecurity is what they use most where they have wheel bath intended for vehicles to pass through and a foot and hand bath for the people. This is a way to reduce spread of diseases that people may bring into the farm from other areas.
Ø E is for environment- they ensure that their environment is clean. They avoided litter around the farm to prevent animals from eating plastics and other litter.
Ø Q is for Quality- all they do from caring for their animals, selling them and customer handling, they contribute to quality of their final product. Thus they make sure that they are doing their standard always.
Zvikomborero farm is the best. They are excellent are committed to what they do. They gave me a positive mindset and a great appreciation of Agriculture.
Other women are doing it, we can do it also. What it takes is passion and willingness to start small.
Source: Linked In