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| WHY ALBERT NOW HAS SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE |
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ALBERT NKOMO benefits from ZimPro’s project in Insiza district. At 60, Albert has far surpassed the normal life expectancy for a man in Zimbabwe, which now is just 40 – a grim indicator of the country’s economic decline. But he has quickly picked up the new farming techniques and they have paid off.
Albert hosts visits from fellow farmers to show them the rewards of his good work at his impressive plot and to share what he has learned.
He keeps meticulous records of things such as seed types used and their success, planting dates, rainfall amounts, planting and weeding dates, in order to improve the new practices.
The drums in which he used to store his farm produce will not hold all of his harvest this year, and Zimpro is helping him save some ‘for a rainy day’.
Albert plans to use the new methods on other parts of his land for the next season’s crops. ZimPro’s project coordinator says that Albert and his family are “well on their way to kissing food aid goodbye!”
Albert’s daughter, 14-year-old Sithobekile, remembers the day ZimPro came to the family’s farm. “Zimpro first visited our family last year, in October. They taught us how to plant in straight lines, and also about laying grass to preserve water.
“They gave us seeds: maize, groundnuts and cowpeas. And tools: a wheelbarrow, string/twine, a tape measure and hoes. We now grow maize, cowpeas and sorghum,” Sithobekile says.
“Life is better now we are growing more food because we won’t die of hunger. My favourite thing to eat is roasted corn, which we now eat once a day.”
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