In the Chivi District, over 1,500 smallholder farmers and their families are benefiting from DAPP’s Farmers’ Clubs model, which promotes conservation farming practices such as potholing, mulching, and crop diversification. With support from DAPP Field Officers and AGRITEX, these farmers received training, practical lessons and field visits. The assistance helped them build resilience to climate shocks by adopting climate-smart farming strategies that utilize locally available resources and technologies. In the 2024/2025 season, almost all 1,500 farmers’ recorded great harvest in drought resistant crops and small grains especially rapoko, millets, groundnuts, sesame and sweet potatoes. To date, 850 farmers have stocked enough food from their fields to last them until the next harvest season
One inspiring case story is that of Ms. Vimbai Macheka, a 61-year-old farmer from Macheka village. With guidance from DAPP and AGRITEX, Mrs Macheka adopted conservation farming principles on her 1-hectare plot, where she grew groundnuts. From a 1-acre section, she harvested an impressive 400 kg of shelled groundnuts and sold 300 kgs at a price of USD $30 per 20 kg bucket. She also kept 100 kgs for her family’s consumption. Thanks to her successful harvest, Ms. Macheka’s family, including her five grandchildren, will have enough food including other harvested crops including rapoko, sweet potatoes and millets to last until the next season.
Ms. Macheka used the USD $450 income generated from her groundnut sales to purchase essential food items, hygiene products and inputs for the upcoming farming season. Additionally, she hopes to harvest at least a tonne of maize, which she is currently shelling. Ms. Macheka plans to sell some of the maize for income while reserving the rest for her family’s consumption.
Our project was a success due to funding support from GAIA Movement USA and DAPP Zimbabwe is proud to be making a positive impact on the lives of smallholder farmers and their families in the Chivi district.