From gloom to agric champion of Chiredzi.

ANESU MASAMVU RECENTLY IN CHIREDZI

When her husband, Joshua Runhare, became blind in 2019, one would have thought that the future for the wife, Alletah Machangu, and the family, was doomed.

It was widely expected that the family would start to rely on charity and gifts from well-wishers.

However, for Machangu, it meant stepping up to take up the task of taking care of the family of 10 by herself.

She then made the decision to go farming. In order to thrive in the normally arid Chiredzi region, Machangu had to adopt climate smart agriculture methods.

In this specific instance, she chose Pfumvudza. This is a strategy for agricultural production intensification where farmers make sure that labor and inputs are used efficiently on a small plot of land to maximize management.

She is fortunate to have the support of the government and other development partners, who have enabled her to easily adapt and comprehend the ins and outs of venturing into smart climate agriculture.

 Help has come through agriculture extension officers and other experts.

With the guidance of the USAID Resilience ANCHORS Activity, she planted her one-hectare sorghum plot early, using short-season varieties and ridges for moisture conservation.

This worked like magic because, as her most recent field day event at her farm and homestead showed, she is the best farmer in her area.

With a yield of close to two tonnes, in her first season as an established farmer who is still learning how to manoeuvre past the dry Chiredzi climatic conditions, this is evidence of climate-smart agriculture’s effectiveness in mitigating the effects of drought.

She has indicated that this is only but just the beginning and wants more farming land to demonstrate her capabilities.

What she highlighted the most in the interview with Business Times is that in an area where most people are at risk of hunger, her family is safe and with her doubling as the breadwinner and taking care of her special needs husband, she is at ease and happy that she has other things out the way.

“When my husband fell sick and got blind, I honestly thought this was the end of the world and looking at how big my family was, I knew it was never going to be easy for me,” she told Business Times.

“I had to be strong and through the advice I got from extension officers, I decided to venture into agriculture and I knew that I had to be the best if I was to take care of my big family.”

Machangu said the coming in of the USAID Resilience ANCHORS Activity has also helped her.

“They have been very instrumental in training me on how to understand how climate smart agriculture is done, and this has been very helpful, as you can see, I am outstanding and I want to keep going.”

She added: “What will keep me going is the fact that I now can pay for school fees for my children and grandchildren without going through a lot and I no longer have sleepless nights thinking where to get money. Most importantly, my family is food secure, I get to sell or exchange my small grains for other grains.”

The Chiredzi based farmer said she now desires additional land to showcase her abilities.

“At this stage, I need more land so that I increase my hectarage, and most importantly, I need the technical support I get from government extension officers and experts from the USAID Resilience ANCHORS Activity who have the best advice and always tell me the latest trends on how to get maximum output from what I plant,” Machangu told Business Times.

Machangu is utilizing a portion of the money she makes from her agricultural endeavors to participate in money rounds known as “Mikando,” which is a creative method for people in the community to support one another’s personal growth.

“I have been able to use the money Iget from this technique to buy livestock to boost my income and critically to make sure that my family is food secure.”

Runhare, the husband to Alletah Machangu says he is happy with how his wife transitioned to take up the responsibility of breadwinner after he got blind.

“My wife is very hardworking, it is unfortunate that I got blind in 2019 but I am happy with what she has been doing and I am here to encourage and motivate her to work even hard so that the family keeps going,” Runhare said.

He added:”She works day and night and she has been lucky because she has been getting information and support from different stakeholders who have made it easy for her considering the workload she has.”

Runhare says the good feeling of people coming to their homestead to see what her wife is doing cannot be taken away.

“I continue to encourage her that she should now do away with conventional farming methods and keep up with the trends, climate smart agriculture methods that have proved to be the answer. I will keep drilling that in her head so that she keeps the momentum, that is the little i can do considering my condition.”

Mercy Muganyi, an Agriculture Extension Officer of the area says Machangu has proved that she is a force to reckon with, although she still needs more to learn and information on climate change and climate smart agriculture.

“I have been working with them for close to three years now and, I’m glad that she now understands that it is time to adopt climate smart agriculture techniques, it is unfortunate that most of the farmers still lag behind but I’m happy that she is also part of the people who are encouraging other farmers to adopt climate smart agriculture methods,” Muganyi said.

She added: “Had it not been for water challenges, she should have surpassed what she got but I am really impressed by her technical ability in climate smart agriculture and she is destined for greatness.”

On her ability to double up as a farmer and catering for her family and blind husband, Muganyi said: “This woman is a hero, she is outshining a lot of male farmers in this area, but most importantly she has not neglected her family which has someone with special needs. Surely we will continue to guide her on how to be the best, along with other partners like the USAID Resilience ANCHORS Activity.”

USAID Resilience ANCHORS Climate Smart Agriculture expert Priscah Nyagweta acknowledged their role working closely with Agritex in making sure that Alletah is a top farmer.

“When we first started working with her, she was someone who was into the conventional ways of farming, and would only prefer to grow maize, but with time we got to make her understand that she shouldn’t venture more into small grains and climate smart agriculture, a technique that she has mastered and is slowly but surely perfecting it.”

She added:”To showcase her good work, we did a field day here, and this also inspires other farmers to do more and seeing that one has adopted climate smart agriculture methods, they will surely do the same.”

Nyagweta indicated that they have already started to initiate plans to have more land for her to showcase her skills to others and most importantly to improve her quality of life.

“The plan now is for her to do away with the growing of maize and focus solely on small grains and her progress is very impressive.”