A group of youths from Shurugwi district in the Midlands province (about 310 km from Harare) are running nutrition gardens. These nutrition gardens are helping them to earn a living and have access to nutritious food. Marjory Mapolisa (25) is one young woman who involved in running a nutrition garden. She dropped out of school at the age of 18 because she could no longer afford to pay for her education.
Marjory does not run the nutrition garden alone. She is a member of a group of 10 out of school youths who came together to set up a nutrition garden after receiving training on Integrated Land Use Design. Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme (SCOPE) Zimbabwe facilitated the training under their Youths nutrition garden project. The garden measures 0.25 hectares.
Marjory says the first step they took was to improve soil fertility.
“We organized ourselves and brought eight scotch carts of manure to feed the soil. We cleared the fenced land and ploughed it as initial cultivation then designed some beds,” says Marjory.
The group planted a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, onions, tsunga, rape, covo and cabbages and shortly began to enjoy the benefits. In a short space of time Marjory and her group were harvesting produce.
“Six months from the time of training we were selling vegetables and tomatoes. From our first project activities, we raised RTGS$850 which we shared. We were also taking vegetables for our home consumption too,” she adds.
Marjory says after their first success the group increased the diversity of vegetables planted in the garden. This, she says will boost their income.
“We have planted 1, 580 tomato plants and some are nearing maturity, 800 onions, 45 butter nuts, sugar beans, carrots and some maize from which we expect to rake in a lot of revenue,” says Marjory.
The flourishing nutrition garden is attracting a lot of attention. Marjory says other community members are taking great interest.
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