INSPIRED by her late father who was an Agritex officer, a female farmer, Ms Talita Matutu left her job as a maid in South Africa to venture into a successful horticulture project at her plot in Rangemore in Umguza District.
Ms Matutu represents a crop of female farmers who are
defining the success story of farming, thereby contributing significantly to
food security for the nation as they continue to rise fast to levels unparalleled
by their male counterparts.
In the last two months, Ms Matutu (58) has been busy
harvesting tomatoes of the conventional Rodade variety and has so far realised
US$1 500 from sales.
Rodade is an adaptable open pollinated, determinate salad
tomato. The plants grow to a bush with a height in the region of 100cm.
The tomatoes have a globe shape, uniform in size and weight
around 100 – 150g. The yield potential of Rodade is high for an open pollinated
variety.
This month, Ms Matutu has started harvesting Tengeru
tomatoes, a high-yielding strong plant with very good yields. The tomatoes are
firm round to oblate and weigh between 100-125g with a two weeks’ shelf life.
A single mother of four, Ms Matutu said through farming,
she is able to sustain her family and pay fees for her children including their
children.
One of her children has since completed her studies at the
National University of Science and Technology (Nust) through her mother’s
farming business.
Ms Matutu has also inspired her children to venture into
agriculture-related business. Her youngest daughter, a water resources
engineering student at the Bulawayo Polytechnic, is following in her footsteps.
Ms Matutu worked in South Africa as a house maid from 2003
until 2009 when she decided to return home to venture into farming.
Since venturing into full-time farming a few years ago, Ms
Matutu has never looked back as her horticulture project is paying dividends.
She specialises in growing tomatoes, garlic, cabbages,
vegetables and butternuts at her 5-hectare piece of land. She has presently
planted garlic and 5 000 cabbages and she expects to harvest both crops in
September.
Ms Matutu said she harvests after every three months and
supplies local supermarkets, fruit and vegetable markets in Bulawayo and
individuals. “I inherited this piece of land from my late parents and since I
started venturing into full-time farming a few years ago, I have not looked
back. I grow tomatoes, garlic, cabbages, vegetables and butternuts, which I
then take to the local market,” said Ms Matutu.
“I grew up in a family that literally ate, drank and deamt
farming and that is precisely how I developed the interest in farming. I am
actually following in my father’s footsteps and he is the one who inspired me..
By virtue of having been an Agritex officer, my father loved farming so much.”
Ms Matutu said she decided to take farming seriously
following the death of her parents in 2008 and 2011 respectively
“When I started, I only utilised a small portion in such a
vast piece of land growing several varieties of crops. In 2019, It dawned on me
that farming is big business and that is when I decided to take farming
seriously by expanding the hectarage,” she said.
“Through various training programmes and the encouragement
from our local Agritex officer, I have moved to this level of farming, which I
am today proud of.”
Ms Matutu relies on an electricity powered engine to pump
water from the borehole to the fields. However, due to the vandalism of a Zesa
power transformer by thieves, she has in the last two months been relying on a
generator to pump water.
“When it comes to farming, as long as you have focus and
passion you won’t go wrong. I have a grandson who is doing Form Four at a
boarding school and I have been paying his fees through farming,” she said. Ms
Matutu said some of the crops were affected by frost.
Ms Matutu said once she secures funds, she intends to drill
more boreholes and introduce drip irrigation, which will help conserve water
and electricity as well as improve the quality of her produce.
She also intends to buy solar powered pumps to minimise disruption
on her farming activities given that they rely on electricity to power the
pump.
Ms Matutu is also a member of the Umguza Horticulture
Consortium (UHC), which she chairs.
She said through farming, she hopes to contribute
significantly to the country’s economic growth.
Zimbabwe is an agrarian economy with most of the country’s
sectors being directly and indirectly linked to the agricultural sub-sector.
Government is targeting transformation of rural and urban
economies through enhancement of food, nutrition, markets, and jobs using value
chains, including the horticulture sector, as a means of achieving a
prosperous, inclusive, diverse, sustainable and competitive agriculture sector.
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