Chronicle Editor
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Correspondent
VILLAGERS in Umzingwane district have been commended for venturing into stockfeed manufacturing using locally available resources in a project partly funded by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) aimed at averting livestock deaths due to lack of pasture.
The villagers of Sibanagani Village in Mbizingwe Ward 4 have formed themselves into a group -Vusanani which comprises of eight females and three males. Speaking during a visit at the project site recently, Matabeleland South Provincial Development Coordinator Ms Latiso Dlamini commended the group for its great work stating that their projects embraced the NDS1 strategy towards the attainment of an upper middle-class economy by 2030.
“I would like to commend you for this great initiative. I am particularly happy that the group is spearheaded by women who are the cog of this project,” said Ms Dlamini.
The chairperson of the Vusanani group Ms Thembi Mlilo said the project has gone a long way in uplifting their livelihoods.
“The project has gone a long way to uplift us as women in terms of self-sustainability. Gone are the days when we used to wait for our spouses to provide for us,” said Ms Mlilo.
She said the project had also assisted their households as some of their spouses have been affected by job cuts due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She gave thanks to the Agricultural Extension officers for their unwavering support as well as the Ministry of Health and Child Care personnel who teach them about hygiene and food handling.
The group initially began as an internal savings and lending group in 2016 and gradually diversified into various projects after having realised that Umzingwane was a low rainfall area with high livestock mortalities. The group ventured into the production of low-cost bush meal which the group invested in with the help of different organisations.
Feed is manufactured using locally available pods, twigs and leaves that are eaten by animals. These include monkey bread, acacia pods amongst others. These are grinded in the hammermill and sold to farmers. The group is conscious of the environment and preserving it for further generations hence harvesting is done ecologically.
There is no cutting down of trees but twigs are pruned using a scissors to ensure continuity. With the help of Agritex officers the group has been successfully trained on fodder production using sorghum and velvet beans to supplement the raw materials.
The group has also embraced smart agriculture with the production of small grains. In addition, the group is a mother unit for SASSO chickens production which they then sell to the community and this boosts the source of protein for houses thus balancing the nutrition of the community. @nyeve14
Online Reporter