WOMEN in Mpopoma suburb have for the past 25 years been running thriving nutritional community gardens as part of efforts to ensure food security and sustainable earnings.
A significant number of the women sell the surplus of their crops to generate income and support their families.
They grow carrots, butternut, beetroot, maize and green leafy vegetables.
One of the oldest farmers at the garden, Mrs Sithokozile Murengi (68), said she started growing vegetables at the garden in 1997.
Mrs Murengi grows a variety of vegetables such as spinach, rape, tsunga, chomollia, carrots, tomatoes and beetroot.
“I started community garden farming many years ago. It’s not always easy because as I age, it becomes harder to work in the gardens. I’m not as strong as I used to be. We fetch water from the community borehole using buckets to water our crops and it’s a lot of hard work.
“But since I started farming here, I’ve never looked back, regardless of the fact that my garden space is far from the borehole compared to others,” said Mrs Murengi.
She said she is benefiting a lot from the garden’s produce.
“I’m a single mother and I’ve been taking care of my family with proceeds generated from selling these vegetables.
“My children have never gone a day without eating and I always pay rentals on time. I sell my crops to individuals as well as local vendors,” she said.
Mrs Murengi said when she was still in school, she had a passion for agriculture and it was her goal to get into farming.
Given a larger piece of land, she said, she can farm to her full potential and supply an even bigger market.
“These gardens take a lot of my time especially when it’s the rainy season as I’ll be tending to the crops. Farming is my passion. During the rainy season, I also have to work on my fields in Ntabazinduna,” said Mrs Murengi.
Another farmer, Mrs Scholastica Nyoni (63), said she recently joined the community garden after noticing that other women were earning a living through farming.She said she has a small piece of land where she grows tomatoes and leafy vegetables.
“I grow vegetables for family consumption and I realised that since I started growing the vegetables, I have cut vegetable costs in my budget,” said Mrs Nyoni.
“There’s no day my family has ever eaten isitshwala without vegetables. The gardens are of great help and I’m happy that as women, we dominate the place; there are few men growing crops there,” said Mrs Nyoni.
She however, said watering the gardens is labour intensive as they have to use buckets to fetch water from a nearby borehole.
As a result, some farmers have since quit farming as they could no longer cope.
“I appeal to the Government to drill a borehole for us somewhere central to the garden. We also need irrigation equipment because the water challenge is limiting a lot of farmers who have the space but can’t harness enough water,” she said. – The Chronicle
