Brian Garwe, aged 26, is a farmer is Tshovani irrigation scheme Chiredzi district in Masvingo province which was rehabilitated under the Smallholder Irrigation Revitalisation Programme (SIRP). Garwe, who is resident in Ward 3, started farming in 2018 after dropping from school. He took over the plot from his mother Esther Garwe who owns 3 hectares in the scheme and now old and no longer able to do farming. He is one of the trending horticulture young farmers in the Chiredzi district.
This year in July, Garwe managed to plant 0,4ha of tomatoes (Chibili variety) with a plant population of 8 thousand plants. He planted using 400kg of compound C and topped-up with 200kg of Calcium nitrate. He carried out a market survey before planting for selection of the best crop to be grown, variety, and peak demand period to meet market requirements. He established that there was a ready market for his crop. He started his first pick of 35 boxes on Monday the 10th of October 2022. Each box sold at USD 15 which he expects to give him a total of USD 525 for the first pick. The farmer is expecting to harvest for one and half months and to pick 35 boxes twice a week which gives a total of 70 boxes with a total income of USD 1050 per week. Brian Garwe is expecting a minimum yield of 10 tonnes /0.4ha and to receive USD 1 – USD 2 per plant which gives total sales of USD 8000.
He testified that through the training that he received from SIRP and the government through training in good agriculture practices, marketing, Farming as a Business, he is looking forward to producing more, as the revitalization of the scheme is now coming to an end. Garwe also testified that horticulture was one of the ways out for Tshovani irrigation farmers, due to the size of the scheme and believes that through horticulture they can make money to pay bills, send their children to school, buys cars and even builds their nice houses.