Mrs Angeline Chitekuteku of Musikavanhu Irrigation Scheme in Chipinge District of Manicaland extended and electrified her house, bought cattle and other assets from the proceeds of cultivating her 0.4 hectares plot. She said, “Before SIRP, I used to harvest 200 boxes of tomatoes. Following the rehabilitation of the scheme which was accompanied by numerous training sessions that I received from SIRP, I now harvest 800 boxes. I now grow high yielding tomato varieties such as this Chibili which give better yields.”
She added, “These are the tomatoes that the market wants. The current price of tomatoes is US$10 per box. Tomato prices fluctuate. Sometimes we sell a box for US$5, but tomatoes are the most lucrative crop to grow. In 2022, I made US$ 10 000 from tomatoes. Before SIRP came in, we used to make about US$1 000 from the same plot. We sell our tomatoes to markets in Chiredzi and Gweru.”
Mrs Chitekuteku also grows maize for the family’s consumption while she sells surplus to the Grain Marketing Board. She remarked, “This plot is 0.2 hectares. I planted a long season, high yielding variety SC727 since I use irrigation. Before the training from SIRP, we used to harvest half a tonne. The SIRP trainings brought us better understanding of good agronomic practices. I now harvest one and a half a tonne from this plot.”
For Mrs Chitekuteku and her family, SIRP also brought lessons on labour sharing, collective planning on crops to be grown, sharing of profits and collective visioning. She noted that, “One of the important trainings that we received from SIRP was on GALS. We were taught and adopted GALS where we learned that everyone in the family can give an opinion on what will plant and purchase from the proceeds of our agricultural activities. Through collective planning which we adopted from GALS, we electrified the house, extended it and bought household property. We also fenced off our homestead after working together as per the trainings from SIRP.”
She points to an old television set which the family has abandoned, “This is our old television set that we bought before SIRP. We replaced it with a modern plasma set after we sold our produce which we grew in the scheme after the rehabilitation. All this property here, the stove, the fridge and the new curtains was bought this after the rehabilitation. SIRP uplifted us.” As we walk towards the family’s cattle kraal just outside the homestead, Mrs Chitekuteku beams with pride and adds that, “We used to have a herd of four cattle, but after the good harvests we bought more cattle which gave birth to calves. We now have a herd of 11 cattle.”