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Freedom Mupanedemo
SHURUGWI District in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province is a predominantly mining countryside.

Endowed with vast gold, platinum and chrome deposits, it is a common dream for every dweller of this rugged countryside —the young, the old and the feeble — to one day own a mining claim and mole the rich soils.

Here, the Great Dyke — forever pregnant with a hodgepodge of minerals — starts its long winding 570km journey to the north on the central plateau, creating the backbone of Zimbabwe.

The majority of people here resort to gold panning in their fervent desire to have a share of the area’s riches; hence it is common to come across panners in their ethereal caricatures — their tattered clothes hued by the red soil.

Today, Shurugwi Town and its environs are in a sorry state with vast open pits and gullies that have been left un-reclaimed as panners callously rip open mother earth in search of the precious minerals.

Rarely do the people of Shurugwi think of any other activity to eke out a living outside mining.

The district is a hive of activity with hordes of people, youths, men and even women going about their mining or gold panning business.

But for one local miner, Mr Nicholas Gara, when news filtered into Shurugwi that Government was introducing Command Agriculture last year, he decided to try farming.

Mr Gara, a successful miner with vast gold claims, milling and processing plants in Shurugwi, decided to give farming a try and cultivate maize under Command Agriculture.

He was a novice in farming and a guru in mining but today, he has made a decision to run both businesses profitably, thanks to Command Agriculture.

“When I heard that Government was availing farming inputs like maize seed and fertiliser under the CommandAgriculture, I decided to venture into farming as well.

“After benefiting, I did everything by the book, consulting Agritex officers at every stage. Surprisingly, it paid off and I had the best maize crop in the entire Shurugwi district,” said the soft spoken and otherwise media-shy Mr Gara.

Recently, the Shurugwi District Command Agriculture field day was held at Mr Gara’s farm with Agritex officials describing his maize as first grade crop.

The field day attracted hordes of people from the mining locality including Government district heads who marvelled at the prospects of farming in this pervasively mining area.

Mr Gara said he was expecting a bumper harvest from his inaugural farming venture, adding that he was now expanding his business into commercial farming.

“We’re all miners if not panners in Shurugwi but the good yields I’m expecting this year from my plot has somehow encouraged me to expand my line of business. I’ll be into full time farming as well,” said Mr Gara while addressing the gathering.

He encouraged fellow miners in Shurugwi to also consider farming as another business.

“This field day event should be an eye opener to many of my fellow miners. We need to also consider farming as a form of business because at times gold is hard to come by and if we diversify, the better,” said Mr Gara.

Shurugwi District Agritex officer, Mrs Elizabeth Gumbo commended Mr Gara for embracing Government’s Command Agriculture.

She said the uptake of Command Agriculture inputs in Shurugwi was very low with many people in the district relegating agriculture to the least on their priority list.

“We know Shurugwi is a mining district but remember agriculture is one of the country’s major pillars of the economy. We should also embrace commercial farming in Shurugwi and Mr Gara is a good example of how agriculture can turn our lives around for the better outside mining,” said Mrs Gumbo.