Youths revolutionise farming through technology

Mandla Ncube, Sunday Business Correspondent
PROVIDING technological agriculture solutions to a sector that heavily defaults to conventional farming practices is a daunting task for anyone, yet for Mr Anesu Mapisa and his youthful team it is the path they have chosen.

Mr Mapisa (26), through his start-up, Farmbuzz has established a niche of their own in an industry which many youths shy away from. Dubbed ‘Smart Agriculture’, the start-up was grandly designed to offer consultancy and empower farmers with sustainable agriculture solutions through the use of high tech equipment.

An agronomist by training, Mr Mapisa and his team have grown from a mere start-up to a fully-fledged company which provides consultancy to farmers both local and in the diaspora.

“We now have a group of experienced agronomists whom are working with these farmers by assisting them to start viable farming ventures, we help them (farmers) from planning, budgets, production up to the stage of marketing their products,” said Mr Mapisa, the Farmbuzz chief executive officer.

“Part of the services we are offering is drone spraying services, artificial insemination and on top of it we have a TV show called ‘Smart Farm’ which is on YouTube to enlighten farmers. We have been preaching the gospel of farming and we are glad a number of youths are being inspired to actually get into farming also in their huge numbers.”

Formed in 2019, as a consultancy group, Farmbuzz with its smart farm management services is spearheading technological solutions in the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe.

“We saw that the human population is increasing each and every day it’s not tallying with the amount of food produced, therefore we came up with this idea of bringing in new farming ideas so that the industry can be sustained. We want the farmer to find everything from us and our vision is to be the best agriculture solution hub in Africa.”

But like any other graduates fresh out of school, graduating and folding hands was never an attractive option, the pressure to make something meaningful out of one’s life was a greater push to establishing the company.

“The biggest capital we ever had was just ideas, we had that urge of creating employment for the youth and make farming attractive by using technologies,” added Farmbuzz director, Mr Emmanuel Marume.

Many startups for many youths in Zimbabwe fail to take off or either die a still death, but the Farmbuzz idea survived and managed to see through their idea.

“We have more than 20 farming projects under our portfolio, we have also managed to introduce the crop drone technology in Zimbabwe and to us that’s a great achievement as we are the first and only company to do that,” he added.

The company is gaining the traction they need at the same time luring other youths into farming sector.

“I didn’t have any knowledge to do with farming but Farmbuzz made it very easy for me,” says 24 year old Mr Panashe Zvingowanisei, a Farmbuzz client.

Mr Zvingowanisei who balances up pursuing a degree in Ethnomusicology and farming at his Nashe Farm in Mt Hampden, in Harare says Farmbuzz youthful team has been a big motivation to other youths like him to take up farming.

“Them being young people you figure out that they have become a motivation to other youths to venture into this rich sector, they are always on the ground when I can’t be at the farm because of school commitments and they really make everything much easier,” he said.

United Kingdom based client, Mr Tapiwa Mataya lauded Farmbuzz for its smart management approach.

“They have the most advanced technology for example they use drones for easy chemical management of pests. They for me provide ease of doing farming in Zimbabwe while I’m stationed out here in England, the idea of them being on the ground from a start of the project right through to harvest and going to market drew my attention to them,” said Mr Mataya.

While Farmbuzz is attempting to technologically revolutionise the way farming is conducted in the country it is not having the smoothest of sailings. Just like any entrepreneur can attest, their journey was that of persistence.

“We started out with no offices to speak of, but we started doing consultancy working from home, it is from there that we started getting few clients and the little money that we started to get we then had to hire some office space,” said Mr Marume.

Farmers’ aversion coupled with lack of finances, are one of the realities the company has had to encounter.

“There are plenty of pitfalls we have faced, it’s been difficult to penetrate the low scale farmers market because most of them can’t afford some of the equipment.”

Farming is a field more or less similar to betting, you are never certain of returns, it can cost you more than you put in. For the Farmbuzz owners choosing a road less travelled by most youths was equally a gamble they took and succeeded thus far.