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Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Reporter
WHILE the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020, deprived many homes of income, for Bulawayo-based young farmer, Mr Mqondisi Mnkandla, it created an opportunity for him to realise his dream of venturing into farming.

After 10 years working in South Africa, Mr Mnkandla decided to take his savings, pack his bags and return home.
It dawned on him that he needed to secure his future.

He had realised that he could not set up anything permanent in the neighbouring country where he was doing any menial task that came his way.

He headed back home to grow his chicken business.
With just 1 000 layers, he started his project.

With zero experience, he learnt on the go and has grown the business to include horticulture.
In 2020 while others were on lockdown and trying to survive, Mr Mnkandla was selling eggs from a car boot where he learnt some of the greatest lessons on farming.

“I just invested in 1 000 layers not even bothering myself about the breed as I was convinced it was worth the sacrifice. I managed to get some eggs from the layers as I was inexperienced in how to keep the chickens. I also had challenges with space as I was keeping them at home. It attracted a lot of complaints from the neighbours,” he said.

Mr Mnkandla eventually bought a 4,3ha plot at Douglasdale where he is doing horticulture.
He has diversified and is selling produce that includes beetroot, green pepper and butternut.

“Although I didn’t make as much as I could from the layers I learnt a lot of lessons and decided to take this farming thing seriously, ‘’ he said.

“After getting the piece of land, I made a fowl run but realised I had so much space which saw me planting vegetables. It’s been a learning curve for me but I am glad to say that I made quite a lot of money after selling my first batch of vegetables. I was excited and wanted to start spending the money only to realise farming needs one to be financially disciplined.”

Mr Mnkandla said he finally got the hang of it and started ploughing back his profits into the project which has enabled him to grow the business.

“I have two functional boreholes and plan to deepen them so that we have water. I am also working on getting a greenhouse in the next few weeks so that I can start growing my own seedlings, which will cut down a lot of costs.”

Mr Mnkandla relies on his friends and family to help him sell his produce and said his social connections have paid off.

“One of the difficult things in farming is to penetrate the market. I mean almost every normal Zimbabwean is into farming so the market is flooded. What I did was tell my sisters and 10 friends that I was selling peas, beetroot and green pepper and they told other people who also spread the message. This is how I have managed to sell my produce. I also get a lot of support from family and friends in the diaspora who order vegetable combos to be delivered to their families and that keeps me afloat.”

Mr Mnkandla said he recently experimented with tomatoes and got a fairly good harvest.

“I have since realised that farming is more complex than what many of us think. Without knowledge and experience, you can easily find yourself bankrupt but I am happy to say I am learning, it’s tough but worth it. Some of my tomatoes didn’t perform well and I realised I had not planned properly,” he said.
Mr Mnkandla said he has three employees who live at the plot.

“As I continue to grow as a farmer I am seeing the need for more human resources if I am to make it big. So I am definitely going to hire more people as I have plans to plant certain vegetables all year round once my greenhouses are in place.”

Mr Mnkandla encouraged emerging farmers to be patient and prepared to spend more money on setting up their projects before they can start getting profits.

“The business is fulfilling but hard. It needs one to be disciplined and have financial backup as you can easily lose lots of money after one silly mistake. We also need to invest in research and get the necessary knowledge on the plants that we want to plant before wasting resources. I mean the sky is the limit when one is home and I don’t ever regret coming back home to work hard.” –@thamamoe