By Yvonne P. Mangani MASVINGO – The City of Masvingo hosted a two-day capacity building and market linkages training to equip farmers, processors, entrepreneurs, and agribusiness stakeholders with practical skills to grow their businesses and access both local and international markets.The workshop, held under the City’s Local Economic Development (LED) Plan, brought together key players in agriculture and business to tackle challenges around post-harvest losses, value addition, financing, and export readiness.Opening the training, Dr. Kingstone Mujeyi urged participants to shift their mindset and treat agriculture as a business rather than subsistence farming. He stressed that the agricultural value chain holds massive opportunities for wealth creation, employment, and economic transformation if approached commercially and innovatively.“Agriculture must be treated as a business enterprise that creates wealth, employment, and economic transformation. There are immense opportunities in value addition, commercial production, and market-driven farming,” said Dr. Mujeyi.ZIMTRADE representative Kinsley Gwatidzo took participants through export market opportunities and how to position local products for regional and international buyers. He highlighted the importance of quality control, branding, packaging, and compliance with export standards, while encouraging businesses to use ZIMTRADE’s trade promotion platforms.CBZ Bank Head of SMEs Batanayi Mukonzo, focused on unlocking project finance for small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs. He guided participants on how to prepare bankable proposals, maintain proper business records, and meet financing requirements to attract investment and support.Sharing a practical perspective, Clever Garirofa of Global Harvest gave an inspiring account of his entrepreneurship journey. He spoke openly about the challenges, lessons, and wins along the way, motivating farmers and SMEs to remain resilient and innovative.Farmers who attended said the training directly addressed their day-to-day challenges. Mushagashe farmer and founder of the Edengate Foundation Trust Alfred Ndudzo, said the workshop taught him the importance of value addition. “Through this workshop I have learnt that it is very appropriate for farmers to do value addition on their products and sell them when processed. Having reached another level will help in getting more income, resting from the work and also sometimes looking for workers,” said Ndudzo.He added that many farmers suffer post-harvest losses due to lack of knowledge on processing, market access, and seed sourcing, and banking options for agribusiness.For Mashoko Chibaya, a farmer from Chivi North Ward 11, the workshop was an eye-opener on formalization and financing. “The two-day workshop has enlightened me on the processes to register as a farmer, small-scale farmer formalization, and a step-by-step guide to the benefits. I also learnt ways to unlock project finance for small-scale farmers,” he said. Chibaya said he valued the networking with various stakeholders and opportunities presented during the workshop. “What made me happy were the links I made. I had time with other farmers from different places, and this helps us as farmers to network.”Participants commended the City of Masvingo for creating a platform that connects farmers to markets, finance, and knowledge.The training was supported by the European Union, the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the GIZ GGLA Project.
