Sisonke Working Together Trust Bulawayo Zimbabwe is a non governmental organisations working in urban and rural areas of Zimbabwe. Matebeleland South province in Zimbabwe is one of the driest provinces in Zimbabwe with a maximum of 300 to 400mm of rainfall annually. It is a province home to women headed households as their male counterparts have immigrated to South Africa. Women in the Mould of Elita Sibanda and Tracy who reside in ward 10 Matobo in Matebeleland South have taken upon themselves to attend online farmer field school lessons in adaptation and mitigation to climate change effects.
With little rainfall that they harvest they have resorted to survivalist modes of farming such as Zero tillage the program through Sisonke Working Together Trust Bulawayo has grown in leaps and bounds and farmers are no longer cultivating maize but now cultivate small grains which are drought tolerant and mature faster. Lucrative value chains have been developed by these two farmer field school recipients. Sisonke Working Together Trust as organisation donated sorghum and pearl millet seed under a seed multiplication program.
Women farmers in the district of Matobo are grouped into online farmer field schools by Sisonke Working Together Trust to adapt and mitigate against climate change agriculture by using minimum tillage techniques such as Zero Tillage. This technique has seen marginalized women farmers scoring gains in small grains production such as sorghum, millet, and rapoko. This has resulted in the four facets of food security being met. These women are a pure example to the world of women led agricultural programs.
By: Themba Phiri