WATCH: Women team up to venture into piggery

Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
A GROUP of 14 women from Bulawayo have started a pig rearing project on the outskirts of the city.

Boasting 30 animals under the consortium, the group is part of 25 women who attended a pig rearing course in Norton last year as a way to empower them under the Young Women for Economic Development (YW4ED) programme.

First Lady, Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa, launched the YW4ED project in August last year and the organisation is open to all Zimbabweans regardless of political affiliation.

It targets women from the ages of 18 to 45.

In Bulawayo, a YW4ED outreach programme was held last year in September and the organisation exhibited at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF).

After the three-day training course at Norton, a consortium of 14 pooled resources to establish a pig rearing project.

They set up on a piece of land just after turning towards Imbizo Barracks about 20km along the Bulawayo-Harare Highway which is owned by one of the members.

The 14 are musician Sandra Ndebele, Diana Dube, Bridget Bhebhe, Sharon Dube, Sharon Nyauta, Laura Malane, Queen Chimbo, Charmaine Botch, Senaniso Sibanda, Bridget Mazorodze, Mellisa Ncube, Smangele Mazwi, Cecillia Jezenga and Chido Athalia Mukuni.

A Chronicle news crew yesterday visited the piggery which is in Umguza District.

Fifteen out of 30 pig sties have been built and the women have hired two men to look after the property and feed the pigs.

The livestock comprises 27 sows and three boars of hybrids which include the Duroc, Large White and Landrace breeds.

There is a borehole that supplies water to clean the sties thrice a day and provide drinking water to the pigs. Also, there is a storehouse where the pig feed is kept for the various animals at varying stages of maturity.

However, the place is not yet fenced, something that will be done soon according to the consortium.

Ms Nyauta, who is also YW4ED head of agriculture for Bulawayo Province, said the pigs will be ready for slaughter towards the end of the year.

“The pigs give birth at least twice a year. Right now, the pigs are ready for market, but our plan now is not to slaughter them as we want to grow our breed.

At the present moment, the pigs are at the mating stage, and in three months, and after that we can select those which, we can slaughter,” said Ms Nyauta.

She said the different pig breeds are being mixed to come up with a more productive breed.

“We have Duroc breed, Large Whites and Landrace. We have to mix our breeds to produce stronger breeds in terms of meat production and resistance to diseases. Such as the Duroc breed which is a very strong breed and lives longer and more resistant to diseases, the large white gives birth to more piglets,” said Ms Nyauta.

She said the pigs consume 2kg each of feed per day and are fed 1kg in the morning and another kilogramme in the evening at around 4PM.

Ms Nyauta said Ms Diana Dube, the farm manager, is a graduate in agriculture and the group employed Mr Sarai Chikumene and Mr Hillary Mpofu to look after the pigs.

Ms Nyauta said they contribute US$50 per month to run the project.

“With the contributions from the members such as land and money we managed to build the pens here slowly, with the first 10 and we are completing the next 20 soon.The three are blocks of 10 rooms each whereby we keep five pigs per room and the males stay on their own.

“This is because we expect that each sow gives us plus or minus 10 piglets and by that time, perhaps the end of December all these rooms will be full and we need to build more,” said Ms Nyauta.

Ms Nyauta said after training they realised the importance of forming a consortium to grow their business.

“We started it in February after we were trained in Norton and after training, His Excellency President Mnangagwa gave us 15 pigs to start with.

On our own, we bought 15 more pigs and we started with 30.

Now we have 27 females and boars,” said Ms Nyauta.

“Thereafter, we decided to form a consortium so that we make it a proper business and help each other develop it and also to be able to pass on the knowledge to others.

We saw that if we don’t do that, we won’t be able to grow the business to the extent that we want it to grow.”

Ms Nyauta said the consortium has a vision to build a processing plant and expand into fish farming.
“The waste from the pig sties is being collected in a hole that we are digging.

That manure will be collected for fertiliser and also soon we shall start rearing fish and this is great feed for them.

“The whole concept behind this is to be able to empower ourselves to learn the business side of agriculture and farming.

Our vision and aim are to have a processing plant here at the property and also to be able to empower other women through training in these and other projects,” said Ms Nyauta.

She said in Bulawayo there are YW4ED leaders in different districts and joining is free.

“We are open and interested in having many other young women, join our organisation. We want to see people grow and women grow.

The pig project isn’t the only project that we are doing, we did chicken training, and rabbit training, which is ongoing and we are having one in Bulawayo this Saturday,” said Ms Nyauta.

“We also have a mining sector, tourism sector and SMEs sector.

We are following NDS1 and we believe that we will be able to empower many women in different sectors.

So, whichever sector you are interested in we will be there to help you grow your business and be a better woman.”