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My name is Tinashe Chingoma member of the esteemed ZBIN for over five years now

Professionally I am an accountant/auditor, however I have been into groceries for over a decade and farming for the past three years but have been on the ground full time for the past six months. The reason why I went to the farm on fulltime basis whilst I do part-time on groceries is I realized that farming can only grow kana uri paground.

Today we will delve into cabbages;

For cabbages I will add another bonus for red cabbages and cauliflower and broccoli

With my experience cabbage is the easiest crop to grow, however it’s also a crop inogona kukurarisa nebhutsu if you mistimed. Can members please confirm, do all members understand Shona or I stick to English only? Waiting for any non Shona speaking member before I proceed,just one minute window!!

For cabbages I would recommend these varieties

• 1-kilimo
• 2-3301,10,11, Stake ayres
• 3-Lunaria

Fabiola for me handina kuridira size of the head, mumusika raizvimbira. You would end up wakudollar for 5/6 plus makoronyera vanokuwisira pasi yet radya same feeding nemahybrids ayo. Cabbages are heavy feeders who require both fertilisers nemanyowa. I did both experiments and I realized kuti asina manyowa their perfomance can’t match ane manyowa. So during off season august ikoko uko tsvagai manyowa as much as possible kumatanga uko.

Prices: Cabbage pick up prices usually from mid November up to latest of June thereabout.

Generally hector we deal with 30k plants however I recommend an extra 20% to cater for asingakure,anotsemuka, anofa etc. Also stagger them coz ukamati zhuu kaone anozvimbira iwe muridzi.

Fertilizers:  I usually put between cup 22-30 for compound C, high C

Manyowa just my palm,ruoko one pagomba usina kurivhara is enough

These requirements apply to brascias family yandatauta pamusoro apo ie,red cabbage, green ramajaira, cauliflower, nebrocolli. For cauliflower please stick to twister iyoyo inovhara,macustomers haadi yakasviba

Then for Top dresser we use AN 15g per plant however spread over three times ie day 7,14,28.musapfuure day 35 musina kupedza kuisa AN kana muri musummer then musapfuure day 35 muwinter matapinda umu.

Best Period

Kana uchirima cabbage please never ever over expect profits. Kuti usage neBP work just with 100% return. Matimes 4/5 you will be disappointed. This crop is a compounding crop meaning consistence carries you through. Good margins momawana December up to April- May. Then November, June and sometimes July are survival months.

My current Kilimo yakasvika ne60 days, yes just two months ranga rasvika.

These crops dzooda mumunda makachena,plus rinoda mvura,every third day engine inenge ichiridza.

So with my experience ndoburitsa cabbage every second month for nine months

Kutenga mbeu yakabuda kudhara kune disadvantage yemaextra costs yekuti kana zvarema unozochema coz you can’t adjust your prices.

For Stake Ayres maseeds totora kucharger seeds however for those vanoenda,SA, Zambia, Tanzania ,you can get them at a fraction. Kagama ke12500 seeds kanoita $48 kucharger seeds. Seedlings akabuda kudhara anoita between $25-$30 per thousand

Saka mukatenga 4 zvigaba zviya you are guaranteed to get good seedling dze40k plants at less than a dollar (Sorry neless than $200)

Profit Calculations

Manje mukatenga akabuda kudhara makubata $1,200 same thing chandashandisa maybe $250. Cost cutting kufarming carries you through fellow members

Saka let’s do the maths tese;

• $250 for seeds
• Compound C*16 bags *$36 $576
• AN 11bags*$39 =$429
• Mishonga $100 is enough if you buy in bulk mukatenga one one vanodhura
• So we have $250+$576+$429=$1255.

Remember tiri kushandisa ndina ye36,000 plants, this is just over a hector but we treat it as a hector to accommodate for the losses I highlighted earlier. Kurima zvosiyana nenzvimbo. Kusakura haridi sora. Sorry to say this handina kufarira randakashandisira maherbicides harina kundiitira zvakanaka. Also I realized kuti mulching kutimbira kuuya the perfomance is different from asingatimbirwe. Mvura cabbage rinoda chaizvo but not too much.

Any questions before we proceed?

Sorry to say this akasakurwa perfoms far much better than ashandisirwa maherbicides

Vekusakura vacho ngavaite kakutimbira even culvate achirimadiki

So pandinoisa cabbage ndoisa futi some red cabbage,cauliflower nebrocolli at the same time. These input them in batches of just a thousand to 1500 each per batch.

Red cabbage pamunda they take ne$ for 2/3

Cauliflower nebrocolli the same maximum $ for 4

So pavanotora cabbage they then take maybe 200 broccoli,200 cauliflower then 100-200 red cabbage. Another experience as long as the batches are good and the sizes are good please vakomana vemabare,chikwanha ,Bulawayo nemutare ngavauye vatore vega.iwe verengerwa Mari yako zvekuti kumarket zviri kuita marii siyana nazvo.

Fresh produce just scan the market then price in a way yekuti you attract the correct people. Mutare market, those guys take them to Mozambique,big ones vanga vachitipa ma$ for 3 then the rest 4 and 5. So if you manage your crop well ,60% will be big ones ,.ie 18000 marova mu$6k. Balance 12k or so mowana even $2000 bho zvokuti. Inini personally ndotsvaga anything above $6000 ratorwa pamunda. That way I am guaranteed 100% profit every 3 months. If the market is good you can get as much as $10k but those figure dzobuda kana uchiri nemasmall portions kana akawanda work with $6k-$8k

Questions & Answers

Dorcas Oriflame: How is the spacing done?

Tinashe: For those hybrids please isai ma50cm-60 interrow then 60-8cm kuitira pakudiridza. Mukanyanya kumabatanidza anotambidza pakudiridza moshaya pekutsika

Lenience: Do you have a spraying program for pests?

Tinashe: Right every 3-4 days. Muchichinjanisa mishonga. Please check chemical groups kuti akasiyana here

Dorcas: So pakudiridza you only skip one day then water again?

Tinashe: No twice a week especially kana kuchipisa. For those who use big pumps I recommend rain pipes.

Some of you may need inspiration from others before you plunge into business. How are others doing it? What challenges did they overcome? This is the whole essence of Premium Chats. Learning from others who have travelled different entrepreneurial journies.

We bring you Pastor Joel Chiviru and he shares with you the Premium Chat delivered last week.

Greetings ZBIN . It’s an honour to be on this platform with men and women of great focus and success . My name is Joel Chiviru. I am married and have a daughter. I am a young brother to Fine Chiviru , one of the most influential entrepreneur in ZBIN .I am also a founder and Pastor of a ministry called Fruitful Grace ministry which is based in Mozambique so I travel quarterly between Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

So you know being a Pastor, some people always think a Pastor is either in ministry for business and is surely making money by people offering and thithes. There is also another group people who think a Pastor should not live a good life, but should live a humble and kinda poor life while doing church the rest of his life. These two perceptions made me to make some crucial and deliberate life decisions which are:

1. I will never take church’s money but rather be the biggest giver in my every own ministry, currently no one gives more than me in the church I lead.
2. I will not be a begging Pastor who moves around waiting for the church to feed him.

………

Before I became a Pastor. I only worked two times in my whole life. The first time I was sales person in 2006 for two months , the second time I was a waiter in south Africa at Panarotis for only a month in 2008. My experience with working for people was very bad bcz I was very passionate for God and because of immaturity I thought my Employees are inhuman and don’t understand that I should serve God so they must allow me to do so at times.

So on these two jobs I left and this led me to another crucial life decision, that I will never ever work for anyone in my whole life and since then. This notion was further brewed by the mentorship of the Word of God from my Life Mentors. They made me understand it’s not really God’s blessing to work for someone. A blessed person is the one in charge and have control over his life, money and finances. So ever since I have never worked for anyone. In 2021 I started a company for fitted cabinets and this is how I started it.

……

I have my friend who is called Sandiswa Chirinda , my Patner in business. He is also a Pastor and we met at bible skul. He had learnt to do joinery by observation and mastered it. Myself I was just hustling through what’s trending, most of my years I was a middlemen and making some money through that. I have learnt that if you solve someone’s problem, you can get money for that. If you spend time studying people’s problems, find solutions to help them then you won’t die of hunger.

……

This Partner of mine in 2021 made me to see a piece which he did in carpentry by then and was amazed at the piece he did while he was working under some one. Right away I persuaded him to leave work and we start our own thing. At first he was not confident, I guess he was afraid of leaving work and struggle. So I began to create fliers and I developed a deep passion for marketing . I did this until I came to him with a job that needed to be done.

This job was from a diaspora lady in UK. From that job I gained more confidence and began serious marketing and began to win jobs until my Fellow Pastor began to see the light. He now believed he can be his own boss. I bought the needed equipment and encouraged him to leave. He was still hesitant and as a religious someone who believes in God I just to him I am firing you from your work so soon you will be fired at work and we will be registering our company soon. It didn’t take a month. He had issues with his boss concerning payment of cluster job they had done. From there he wholeheartedly joined me and we registered a company Josan Interior Luxuries Jo el and San diswa.

…….
Our experience in this field has been amazing. We did more than 300 since 2021. Most of our clients were generally from UK, US, Australia, Ireland but mostly UK. 90 percent of our clients came and still come from disapora. 10 percent are locals. I am delighted that on locals we managed to do jobs for some ZBIN members and that is an honour.

A Bbg opportunity we had was that upon the hardwork we did. We got one of the biggest suppliers of boards to enter into a partnership with us , in this partnership allows us to get all materials we want and pay later. This opportunity made us to start our program FIT AND PAY LATER. A initiative where our clients pay a deposit, we do work for them and they pay balance in three to six months. This initiative has made us to live a very sustainable life bcz we are guaranteed of something every month.