Objectives of the project

• Effective project management and co-ordination
• To increase agricultural production under organic
• To improve Permaculture techniques and practices among small holder farmers
• Enhance production, income earning opportunities and market access for participating farmers.

Relevance and achievement of objectives

Objective 1: Effective project management and co-ordination

At the beginning of the year the project team held meetings with the representative committees from the two districts to discuss mapping the way forward for their project.

Attendance in both districts was satisfactorily good.

90% of the committee managed to attend the meetings in all areas. Women’s attendance and participation increased significantly in the current year than the previous ones.

This positive change in women participation might be attributed to the gender mainstreaming and awareness activities that were conducted during the initial phase of the project.

The main sentiments raised by beneficiaries are of the low price being offered for the chilies farmers are producing as the crop has high labour demands.

Farmers also wished to increase in the number of crops under contract farming, the committee also resolved to have a marketing taskforce that spearheads the marketing issues.

Objective 2: To increase agricultural production under organic.

The survey that was carried out in that year (2010) indicated that most the percentage of land under organic is increasing gradually from the previous year’s land under organic.

Land committed to organic agriculture is only 33 per cent of the total land and of this 36 per cent is under chilli production.

Also, there was an increase in the organic farming since there was a positive increment in the number of other additional organic smallholder farmers who were part of the project.

Almost all farmers who were practising organic farming had a small portion under chilli production due to the farmers’ high prospects for income. The chilli production was boosted by KAITE.

Objective 3: To improve Permaculture techniques and practices among smallholder farmers.

A total of 20 residential and outreach training workshops were conducted.

The main focus of these trainings was to empower farmers with business skills, profit management, specific crop organic production requirements, especially newly introduced cash crop.

Onsite training

Due to an increase in the demand and effectiveness of onsite training compared to classroom training, there was a shift to onsite training.

The shift influenced an increase in farmer participation.

The low-cost nature and little time taken have proved advantageous to both the programmes and the participants especially women who have a lot of other chores to do.

The impacts of these trainings have been well noted with increase in the number of composts, liquid manure making and utilisation in both areas.

Onsite training concepts take up was more than 80% whilst in most cases classroom training uptake and implementation took less than 50%.

A total of 75 farmers were trained by the field officers in various aspects in Marondera, especially fertility management, with emphasis on composting and liquid manure.

Of these 80% were women and 100% of the women attending went on and implemented what they learnt from the trainings.

Knowledge exchange visits

A total of 2 knowledge exchange visits were conducted.

The first visit constituted farmers from conservation farming groups.

The purpose of the visit was to expose the farmers to an environment where they learn and appreciate the accumulative benefits of conservation farming from other fellow farmers with a little bit more experience than theirs.

A total of 18 Farmers attended, and women constituted two thirds of the gathering.

Objective 4: Enhance production, income earning opportunities and market access for participating farmers.

Production/Enterprises

The number of enterprises increased by 1 from the previous existing ones.

Previously, there used to be chillies, groundnuts, and garlic onions.

There was an increased appreciation of organic food’s natural taste.

The farmers utilised more than 3.5 hectares of land for paprika production.

Two vibrant and interactive field days were held.

One was held in Marondera and the other one in Goromonzi.

The green show in Marondera attracted more than 450 people.

The Garden field day in Goromonzi attracted approximately 550 people and has been highly successful with dignitaries showing appreciation and vowed to support the project.