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Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ARMED with just an Ordinary Level certificate, a lot of confidence, and a passion for agriculture, Mrs Faustina Chitura relocated from her United States base just more than six months ago to start a horticulture business in Umguza District, Matabeleland North province, a move that has seen her managing to supply local hotels, retailers and the Bulawayo city market with fresh produce.
Growing up in Mutoko, Mrs Chitura never enjoyed doing gardening chores in the village, but attributes all she learned while gardening with her late mother, to the current success she has enjoyed over the years.
“I was born in Mutoko and later moved to Bulawayo before relocating to the US in 2005. I did my primary education in Tshabalala and then attended Victoria High School in Masvingo. I worked in a cafeteria when I first arrived as I used to run one in Bulawayo before I left, I also used to farm in my backyard in Bulawayo too. I then did nurse aiding in the US and worked in the hospitals where I ended up working in the oncology unit. I used to work 12-hour shifts and when I got back home, I would go to a piece of land (six acres) I had acquired and farmed there for the three days I was off from the hospital.
However, when Covid-19 hit, I left my hospital job to go into farming full-time,” said Mrs Chitura.
She said the farm was a safe place from Covid-19 hence the decision to quit her job and be at the farm where she ran Hukama Produce in Produce. In San Diego Mrs Chitura said securing land was no easy feat.
“I would physically move around looking for people with lots of land to rent, which was difficult. I later found the six acres and lots of water and after I started farming there, I then had people coming to offer me land after they had seen my project. Just before I relocated, I was offered two more acres and my daughter and son-in-law are working on that land continuing with the venture while I concentrate on Hukama Produce Zimbabwe in Umguza. They have also quit their jobs to be full-time farmers,” she said.
In the US she started an organisation with a friend that assisted low-income earners and was greatly appreciated by locals.
“I met a lady with whom we started an organisation called Foodshed. It was farmers coming together and putting produce for low-income people. So, we would sell our food for a lower price than we do to people on the outside so that we accommodate the low-income earners in San Diego. I was one of the first people who started on that in the area,” she added.
Both in the US and in Zimbabwe, she said she only does organic farming.
“I do not use any chemicals on the land or produce. If I am to get rid of things like aphids and I am desperate to spray, I make my own solution with garlic, I soak the garlic in cooking oil for three days and mix with water and spray, no insects like the smell of garlic and they go away. The same applies to my chicken feed, I use ginger and garlic powder and add to their feed and give them. I do not give them anything outside of that,’ she added.
She said coming to Zimbabwe was deliberate.
“I relocated to Zimbabwe in November 2022 and started farming in December of the same year. In January 2023, I laid my drip tape on a piece of land I had secured in Kensington, Umguza in 2016 and the business took off from there. I put cabbages, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, spring onion, chomolia, and spinach and I am still extending the produce that I can grow.
I came back home because home will always be home, we get so homesick when we are abroad. We have so much land that is not being fully utilised and what really pushed me was that I managed to learn how to do things in the US regarding farming and decided to come and implement it in Zimbabwe,” she said.
She, however, said she wants to do different types of farming produce to complement what is already available. Mrs Chitura said if people in the diaspora want to invest back in Zimbabwe, they must have a plan.
“Have something planned while you wait to come and start businesses in Zimbabwe, as long as you are focused you can achieve it slowly but surely. I had the land with water already in place, all I did was come and prepare the land and here I am today. Again, people need to learn to be hands-on and do the work themselves. I work on the land with my three assistants. I am also the one who set up the drip irrigation that we use. I was taught back in the US, I never hired people to connect it for me,” she added.
However, like many businesses, she has suffered losses.
“I had put 25 000 cabbages on the land and I was let down by someone I had entrusted to watch over the crop when I was away and lost all of them, it cost me a lot of money but I told myself I needed to continue with the venture and started afresh,” she said.
She said farmers need to provide the market with clean vegetables packaged well for customers saying that sometimes sales are affected by how produce is presented to a potential customer.
Apart from growing crops Mrs Chitura said she also runs a poultry project where she rears 200 chickens per cycle and also breeds German Shepherd dogs. Currently, she has 24 dogs.
Her husband, Mr Alex Chitura an award-winning sculptor in the US also brought his skills back to Zimbabwe where he carves wildlife out of stone and wood and will be attending an exhibition back in the US soon. — @NyembeziMu
Online Reporter