By Nicholas Madzianike (35)
The city is full of promises for a better and more luxurious life. This false promise is luring youths to abandon their rural homes in search of greener pastures. I left my village in 2004 after completing my Ordinary Level studies. I had high hopes going to Harare, the capital of city of Zimbabwe. My goal was to make it big in the city.
For close to two years, I worked in Harare in the quiet neighbourhood of Waterfalls. I was a landscaper with dreams of establishing myself in the city. But in 2006, the Zimbabwean currency collapsed and living in the city was suddenly no longer viable for me. Left with no other option, I found myself defeated and with my dreams shattered. I headed back to the village after realising that I was never going to achieve anything meaningful. I resolved to focus on farming as a way of generating income and feeding my family.
My name is Nicholas Madzianike and I am 35 years old. I come from Nemaramba village in Chimanimani district located in Manicaland province.
When I arrived home I was allocated a piece of land by my parents, and I started to work on it. I grew crops and reared chickens. I was doing conventional farming, applying synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. I never had enough money to buy external agricultural inputs and relied on farm input donations. This limited the area of land I could farm on because I never had enough inputs to cover the whole area.
In 2019, I attended a meeting that was organised by Participatory Organic Research Extension and Training (PORET) Trust. The meeting focused on agroecology and encouraged local farmers to implement water harvesting techniques and grow traditional grains.
Later, I was invited to go to Africa Centre for Holistic Management (ACHM) to learn more about Holistic Land and Livestock Management (HLLM). HLLM is a system of working with livestock to regenerate land and natural water bodies. This visit was crucial for me because the soils on my farm had become unproductive due to many years of applying synthetic fertilisers.
When I returned from ACHM I started to work with other farmers to collectively herd livestock to prevent overgrazing and to improve soil fertility with their dung and urine. This work is still in its infancy stage and farmers are still assessing the viability of bringing cattle under one herd and grazing according to a plan. However, with the little we have done to date, farmers are acknowledging that HLLM is contributing to improved soil fertility.
I am happy that PORET has availed opportunities for me to learn more about agroecology. I have established working agroecology systems at my homestead. I am realising that the city is not all it is made out to be and the village can provide a good life if one is willing to do the work. Right now I am living comfortably in the village, making a decent living from the agroecological practices I learned through PORET.
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