TellZim reporter

A leopard is reportedly becoming a menace as it is ‘culling’ goats and dogs in Chiponda and Muzondo villages under Chief Nyajena area near Renco Mine.
The lone leopard has killed several goats which graze in Rupara, Manguma and Mangurunguma mountain range which boarders Chiponda, Muzondo and Muvango villages.
However, the most affected village is Chiponda which has since lost a sizable number of goats and dogs to the marauding cat.
Chiponda Village Head Tafirei Manyise confirmed the development saying they were appealing to the responsible authorities to intervene before the village loses more livestock.
“I have been receiving reports from villagers from people in the far end of our village who are losing goats and dogs to the leopard and we call upon the responsible authorities to come to our rescue. A lot of goats and calves have been lost and of late dogs have fallen prey to the leopard,” said Tafirei.
He said women were now afraid to fetch firewood in the mountain and also since it’s summer season, livestock are in free range while goats favour mountains.
“Since we are in summer, livestock are allowed to roam around and that’s when some mostly goats stray into the mountains and fall prey. Now women and children are afraid of going to the mountains to fetch firewood and other activities because of the leopard’s presence,” said Tafirei.
A villager Elson Mhuru said they were shocked to learn that the leopard was now killing dogs saying they have lost a considerable number of those pets.
“The leopard has a habit of keeping its kill on a tree and when it starts to decompose, dogs sense the smell and go there and when they go there, they fall prey to the leopard,” said Mhuru.
The leopard sometimes is said to cross to Chebundi mountain which is also in Chiponda village.
The leopard has been a seasonal feature in the mountains where it sometimes disappears for some months only to reappear.
Cases of human-wild conflicts have been making headlines with the most recent one being a Zaka incident where three family members were seriously injured by a hyena.

…As he harnesses lost water for irrigation

Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI-West Member of Parliament Farai Musikavanhu, an agronomist by profession as well as a sugarcane farmer in Mkwasine at his Puwevhu Enterprises farm is currently doing wonders in mitigating the effects of climate change through adopting the climate smart agriculture.
The initiative motivated him to harness lost irrigation water from nearby farms for irrigational use in his sugarcane farm, where he is currently also subsidizing with other crops including Lucerne, fish farming, maize production, goat production as well as poultry, to mention but a few.
The former Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe (THZ) Agriculture Director (Musikavanhu) is exhibiting good agronomical practices, utilizing the experience he gained at the sole sugar producer in the country as he is rated as one of the best performing few sugarcane farmers in the country.
The Puwevhu Enterprises boss adopted the climate smart agriculture through his diversified farming, where he sacrificed part of his plot, where sugarcane is the mainstay, to mitigate the effects of climate change by growing the country’s staple food (maize) as well as the most debated ‘Lucerne’ crop which he is using to fatten livestock which he buys from the local communities.

Musikavanhu also said that he is growing Lucerne, which is a source of protein replacing the commonly known cotton and soya cake to fatten steers for resale.
“We are formulating our own feed through sugarcane that drops on the loading zone.
After we heard about Lucerne, we introduced it here to replace the cotton and soya cake as the sole sources of protein to fatten our steers we bought from the neighbouring community,” said Musikavanhu.
Over the past few months, there was an outcry of irrigational water in Mkwasine as there developed a technical fault at Manjirenji Dam, which is the sole source of water for thee estates, where Musikavanhu did not face any challenge as he used the little he get sparingly as well as harnessing lost water from neighbouring estates into his small artificial dams, thereby reducing his irrigational costs from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA).
“We never faced that challenge here at Puwevhu Enterprises as we have our own motto that losing water is losing life. We are also harnessing lost water from nearby estates for storage which we will later use for irrigation. Masvingo province has 54% of the country’s water storage which we are failing to utilize at full capacity,” he added.
Musikavanhu also articulated that it was not wise to destroy forests to grown nothing as most of the land in Mkwasine is lying idle due to failures by most farmers.
Most farmers are producing between 60-70 tons of sugarcane per hectare which is almost nothing to someone who has turned farming into business and that cannot justify deforestation to farming.
“It’s useless to cut down trees in order to grow nothing. Most farmers are ranging between 60-70 tons per hectare, which is nothing considering the milling charges and inputs you got from Tongaat Hulett. Farmers should operate between 80-100 tons per ha in order to operate with a better profit margin. Here we are currently expecting 120 tons per ha,” added Musikavanhu.

Great Zimbabwe University lecturer Dr Last Alfandika who was part of the entourage on Puwevhu Enterprises highlighted that government’s public relations is failing to market such farming initiatives hence they are not being welcomed by its citizens.
“We are failing to tell out our story as Zimbabwe due to failure of our government’s public relations. We failed to market the Lucerne project in Chilonga because we only thought of the displacements of people but rather not the multinational value and benefits,” said Dr Alfandika.
The legislator is also into fish farming, livestock, goat and poultry production, Lucerne, garlic as well as maize for food security.

TellZim reporter

RENCO MINE – Chiponda nutritional garden farmers have put a better part of their garden under maize production and said they hope to cash in from the sales of green mealies.
Speaking at an engagement organized by TellZim News at the garden where the media outlet handed over some maize seed and chemicals, the garden’s Agritex officer Fungai Museve said she instructed her famers to plant more maize so that they target green maize sales before the farming season starts.
She also said they wanted to make sure that when the rain falls, their maize crops would be at a better stage of development since the rains usually affect other garden crops like vegetables.
“We want farmers to target green maize market since it is attracting a lot of buyers from towns and growth points. So we have decided to put more land under maize so that it matures at the beginning of the farming season when there is no competition on the market.
Also, the rains during the farming season usually affects vegetable production, so we want our garden to have maize when the rains come so that we won’t have a time where we don’t have crops,” said Museve.

She went on to teach famers on how to apply manure and fertilizers saying maize crops usually indicate their deficiencies through leaf and stem colors.
Chiponda village head Tafirei Manyise said he was impressed by strides being made in the garden which he said benefited people in the village.
“The garden has more people from my village and when it flourishes, it means less poverty for our people and that also lessens unnecessary conflicts in the area. It is my wish that they get more partners to help grow the project and incorporate more people,” said Tafirei.
During another engagement meeting at the same garden in July this year, famers appealed for maize seed and chemicals and TellZim News pledged to lend a helping hand.
The garden has a solar powered borehole which supplies water but the farmers are calling for development partners to help them set up more tanks and fencing material to expand the garden to incorporate more farmers.
It has crop and poultry sections and farmers aim to grow and improve the poultry section which they say is facing market challenges.
Currently the garden has 52 farmers drawn from Chiponda, Muzondo, Muvango, Muchibwa and Maramba villages.