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Community Livelihood Collaborations in Zimbabwe kicks off

Community Livelihood Collaborations in Zimbabwe kicks off

In 2021, Durban University of Technology through its newly established Centre for African Governance and Development (CAGD) entered into a Livelihoods and Export Aided Programme (LEAP) agreement with the African Economic Development Strategies (AEDS) which is based in Zimbabwe and led by Prof Gift Mugano.

Recently, Prof Nirmala Dorasamy (Head of CAGD at DUT) and Prof Fulu Netswera (Executive Dean: Faculty of Management Sciences at DUT) visited Zimbabwe. Together with Prof Gift Mugano (Head of AEDS), the two inspected the LEAP work that is being carried out in Manicaland Province in the rural irrigation schemes at Nyanyadzi and Mutambara villages. The pilot project entailed collaborative growing of onions and butternut by local farmers who are part of the LEAP project. Each farmer is allocated a target hectarage produce. Through this programme, AEDS secures among others seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and markets on behalf of the project members. Likewise, AEDS has secured off takers of the crops and also provides farmers with full time agronomists whose main task is to help the farmers with extension services and post-harvest crop management. The LEAP participating members in each community have grouped themselves to address strategic issues of cohesion such as the management of finance and security, among others.

The intention of LEAP is to unlock the agricultural value chain, address the financial sustainability of local farming activities, food security, gender equality in the farming community and health security. Testimonies from personal experiences by farmers suggests that farming before LEAP was extremely exploitative where contracts were entered into by individual farmers and production firms as well as seed and fertiliser companies, among others. Individual farming for the open markets also yielded negative experiences with unsecured markets and produces either rotting in the fields or taken at below production costs.

A Donor Conference is scheduled for the 26th November 2021 with the participation of the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Office as collaborators. Similar project pilots are also planned for Ghana, Namibia and South Africa.

Pictured: Prof Gift Mugano, Prof Fulu Netswera and Prof Nirmala Dorasamy with local farmers at the irrigation scheme in Mutambara – Zimbabwe.

Article supplied by the Faculty of Management Sciences.

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