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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Matabeleland South Bureau Chief 

MR Nkosibona Satenga Dube has turned his homestead in Insiza District into a viable livestock and crop production enterprise, with a dairy project that has 22 cattle which gives him about 500 litres of milk each day.

He also has beef masters and white Brahmans. He sells a beast for more than US$1 000. His cattle can weigh up to 650kg. Mr Satenga-Dube is also operating a piggery project with about 80 pigs. In addition, he is running a poultry project. He also has 138 goats and 30 of them are Boer goats.

On just four hectares of land, Mr Satenga-Dube is running an agriculture project based on a climate-smart agriculture farming model.

In horticulture he has about 5 000 tomato plants under a greenhouse. He harvests about 340kgs of tomatoes a week. Each crate of tomatoes is sold for US$15 because of their quality. Mr Satenga-Dube also has an orchard with about 300 trees where he grows various fruit trees which include oranges, mangoes, naartjies and lemons. 

He also owns a vegetable shop in the city where he sells his farm produce. He also supplies Bulawayo markets, the Insiza community, local hotels and schools with fresh farm produce. He also supplies milk, broiler chickens and eggs to Wanezi Mission on a large scale.

Mr Satenga-Dube has 20 workers among them a crop specialist, animal specialist and a farm manager at his establishment. 

He drilled six boreholes which he uses to water his crops. For power he uses a solar system.

Mr Satenga-Dube spent about 20 years working at farms in Johannesburg, South Africa. He decided to return home in 2016 and put into practice the skills acquired in the neighbouring country. 

“We are practicing intensive farming on a small piece of land here. Farming isn’t always about having a big portion of land. It depends on how you utilise the land that you have to maximise production. Here I have only four hectares of land but I have managed to operate a dairy project, beef production, horticulture, small livestock production and an orchard,” he said.

“Under livestock I have dairy cattle, Beef masters and white Brahmans. Per day each dairy cow gives us about 20 to 22 litres of milk. Due to the limited amount of land we have here we feed our beef masters and sell them hence we don’t keep a large herd.” 

Mr Satenga-Dube said with tomatoes he specialises in the Star 9037 variety, which has a long shelf life. A Star 9037 tomato has an average mass of 160-180g with thick fruit walls. It has unique resistance to disease and performs well during winter. 

He grows his tomatoes in a greenhouse to ensure that they perform well. He said the advantage of a greenhouse was that the plant is protected from harsh weather conditions such as excessive rains and the extreme cold. Mr Satenga-Dube said most farmers fail to produce a good tomato crop during harsh weather conditions as they leave their crop exposed. 

He believes in the use of organic fertiliser to retain high value from the soil.

“Our area has sandy soils and many people complain that it is not fertile. We feed our soil so that it remains fertile. We utilise organic products that we get from the farm. There is manure that we get from the cattle as well as the chickens. We dry the chicken manure and feed it to cattle and then we use the cow manure for our crops. Before we plant our crops we first apply grass and then animal manure. This helps our crops to perform well,” he said.

With no formal qualification in agriculture, Mr Satenga-Dube said it took a lot of guts for him to leave his lucrative and well-paying job in South Africa where he was a project manager to return home and venture into his own farming enterprise — Satenga Farm Produce. He said the desire to develop his own country propelled him to return.

Mr Dube-Satenga gradually transformed his home into a green oasis with a goal to contribute significantly towards ensuring food and nutrition security in the country.

“Home is best, you can’t be a king in a foreign land. Government has said people should benefit from their land and that’s why I decided to maximise production on my available land using my acquired skills and knowledge. This place started off a simple homestead and we gradually developed it and established these projects,” he said. 

Satenga Farm Produce which operates under the motto “We make a difference”, also seeks to transform the lives of future agriculturalists. The establishment takes students from Lupane State University and Gwanda State University on internship. 

Mr Satenga-Dube said they train five students for eight months and once they have completed their attachment they welcome another group.

He said it is his desire to accommodate up 15 students at a time but he has limited accommodation at his homestead. He said farming is a viable business that he is passionate about and it his desire to have more land so that he can feed communities and groom more future agriculturalists.

Mr Satenga-Dube is also running a horticulture project in Bulawayo, a 1,5 hectares’ piece of land in Ilanda suburb where he is practising greenhouse farming. He produces hybrid red, green and yellow pepper, peas, tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, beetroot, green mealies and collard greens. He also produces seedlings for his horticulture project.

Through his projects, the farmer is contributing significantly to food security for the nation in line with the Agriculture and Food System Transformation Strategy (2020-2025) whose national thrust is to see Zimbabwe achieving a US$8,2 billion agriculture economy by 2025. The strategy, which was launched by President Mnangagwa in August 2020, is underpinned by growing the economy and ensuring Zimbabwe grows its own food and ensures the majority of rural families move from poverty to affluence.–@DubeMatutu