Diaspora Matters

This week I travelled all the way to the small and surprisingly busy town of Binga to facilitate a workshop on nutrition gardens. Usually when one hears the word Binga the first thing that comes to mind is poverty, malaria and malnutrition, I like the rest of my team was surprised to find a well developed and still growing urban center with all the facilities that you can think of banks, market, etc. Like most Zimbabweans out there who are always seeking for that extra dollar I took a little bit of time from my busy schedule to explore for potential business opportunities that are available and in line with the main objective of ZIBN share with the rest of the forum to benefit everyone.

Vegetable demand

Naturally as an agronomist with a strong bias towards fresh produce, I headed for the market and there I had a very interesting conversation with one of the ladies amaiShumba selling her produce. It is quite interesting to note that all their fresh produce which includes tomatoes, cabbages , onions, covo, rape vegetables, comes from Bulawayo which is about 400 km away there is literally no other supplier. Let us use cabbage as an example in order to simplify the numbers game which we are all interested in, the average price of a head of cabbage, a small one is 1 USD, and the bigger size is 1.50/head, on average each one of them sells about 80 cabbages/week and they are about 4 dedicated ladies in the market who sell these. This translates to about 320 cabbages that is 320 USD, taking into consideration the biggest variable which is transport cost of which these women are charged roughly 5-10USD to transport 100 cabbages that is 15-30USD the average profit that one stand to gain is roughly 250 +, from just 300 cabbages. Another interesting point to note is that even the local boarding school/hospital and orphanage purchase all their fresh produce all the way from Bulawayo meaning a huge market and in my mind as the lady was speaking, I was already busy calculating and seeing my pockets getting healthier.

Fresh fish business

After the lengthy and fruitful conversation with AmaiShumba, we then set off for Mlibizi which is more of a resort and fishing area. It is here were I saw how innovative Zimbabweans can be inorder to get that extra dollar but first things first. I am sure everyone is interested in the numbers so let me not waste time and let me get right into it, here fresh fish from the mighty Zambezi river mainly breams is sold at 1.50/kg wholesale price and if you have established a good relationship with the fisherman you can even negotiate to 1.20/kg. Considering that fish is sold at about 4USD/kg at your local supermarket that is a huge profit margin of more than 100% even after deducting your variable costs such as transport and fish transporting license which will cost you about 10USD at the local authorities office. Some would prefer to transport their fish illegally at night to evade the veterinary inspectors to Bulawayo, I do not encourage this practice as you run the risk of losing out if caught. I was reliably informed by one of the fisherman that they are usually booked before they even bring in the catch of the day, this means the “big shots” as they call them come and buy their entire catch exclusively each catch worth about 800-1000 USD. The buyers range from the big shots to your average entrepreneur lady who buys 2 buckets of fresh fish to sell murayini.

The locals have also taken advantage of the booming business and are now providing fridge for hire business, they will charge you on average 2 USD/20kg sack of fresh fish to store overnight and keep your fish frozen and ready for transportation. The local civil servants who have electricity at their houses have not been left out as well as they are also renting out their fridges, those who have been in the business long enough now have even purchased the L.P gas powered refrigerators or the kerosene powered ones in order to get that extra dollar.

In conclusion ladies and gentleman lets not spend most of the time complaining about how bad things are, I challenge you to take the initiative hunt for that extra dollar.

Emmanuel DN Dube is the senior agronomist at Agro Aid Trust, if you have any questions please email him on agroaidtrustzimbabwe@gmail.com+263783 495

Zim has a lot of funding available to the business sector. You have to give a lot of stakeholders credit for trying their best to avail funding for the Small to Medium Scale sector. The biggest hurdle in the country is the access to business opportunities information! The country has a lot of information when it comes to social issues such as Politics, Soccer and Religion-mention business opportunities and funding and most people will go quiet!

So ZBIN is trying its best to enable Zimbabweans and foreign nationals to have access to information on available or emerging opportunities, they say information is power!

At ZBIN we have general information that we share-publicly available information and then we have some information which we provide to our subscribed members only.This morning we have decided to share information of an Agribank Export Facility worth $50 million.

The bank is actively promoting the production of exports through an Export Facility, structured expressly to support Exporters.

The facility has the following features

Purpose: To support Exporters (Any company producing for exports)

Availability: Available immediately (Upon Project Approval)

Eligibility: All exporters

Interest Rate: Up to 7.5% per annum

Tenor: Up to 12 months for working capital/Up to 3 years for Capital Expenditure

For more information, visit any Agribank Branch nearest to you

So there you are, funds are available in Zimbabwe, some from Government or Parastatals such as the Homelink Facility funds or this Agribank Funds facility. ZBIN will be sharing with members tips of how to identify export markets, carrying out market surveys and advise our members on the next steps to be taken in applying for these funds.

Non ZBIN members can directly go to the nearest Agribank branch, no need for any middlemen!

Your favourite business forum brings you a download of Deposit fines you need to be aware of. Go through it and take note of all the fines covered in the 13 page document. If at any time you would like to refer to it in future, simply come to our site and search Deposit Fines.

Thank you

Loading...

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab

Download

One of the most important decisions an entrepreneur has to make is pricing! You have to come up with the correct pricing so as to remain in business. If you set your prices too high then you risk driving customers away, if you set it too low then you risk going out of business. You therefore must set the correct price that enables your business to remain profitable in the long run.

Related to pricing is the calculation of profits which is basically, Sales -Costs= Profit.

Profit calculations usually cause problems to small business owners without experience in finance. One could be making huge losses and not know it and this is dangerous because you can fold your business without knowing it.  You could be happy that all is Ok when you are infact in grave danger. Problems that usually come include not covering all costs in your profit calculations. Few include the cost of labour nor rates such as water and electricity.

Your favourite business forum is going to cover these issues in our live feeds, downloads and videos. Below we feature an article on product pricing, cost calculations and profit. The responses are from the ZBIN Community members.

Profit Calculations:
Bought this plate of sadza @ the Volt Kitchen along S Machel Ave. The price is $1,5…. now iam just thinking. Is this price good enough to make a profit? What are the costs of sadza, veges,nyama….the total costs of producing this meal….thank you.

Responses

Kimberly Chiriseri Even if yu get in supermarkets like Foodworld , Choppies yu can get sadza n beef @ $1.50. Hakuna mari saka that $1.50 is worthy it

Tisha Tee I think using economy of scale its reasonable and profit inenge iripo

Mdala Wa Rue Did not see large volumes though thts why i brought up this qstn

Tisha Tee Not large per say but as in the min quantity of each ingredient that can be bought then i gues the profit is then calculated not as per unit but as the total units produced to the cost of buying the ingredients . .kkk thats wat ive always thought tho

Mdala Wa Rue Yeah our calculations a bit tricky without volumes sold per month….crucial infor missing but still something tells me amount iyo ndeye break even

Tisha Tee You are very right ther some small business owners never notice that they are merely break evn sometimes cash flow is confused as profit

Mdala Wa Rue Cooking oil 2l is $2.85 maOK. Ukuzungu (gravy $1.20, royco $0.50, curry powder$1). All this stuff, plus salt nemhiripiri you use more than once. Assuming you get your 1.7kg broiler at $6 (though most canteens get at $5 or less) and you cut it nicely you get at least 12 pieces of chicken. Add to that kapoto (offals and feet) at $1-1.50. Most urban canteens sell above sixty plates of sadza pa20kg yehupfu.

Mdala Wa Rue Feedbk from ZBIN Poultry group

Tisha Tee Kkk judging from the piece in your plate that chicken had more than standard 12 pieces lol

David Chikombero Nyama per kg beef is 3.99 / kg .. it can feed maybe 12-12 pple . 2 kg of parlenta is $1.65 it can make a whole pot to feed all those pple. Thats abt $5.64. . Now do the maths

Rutendo Faith beef ye$4 a kg feeds 10 ppl.10kg upfu 30 pple.one bundle re$1 rekumbare 30 pple.tomatoes e 5r anokwana 30pple.hameno pahuni or gas apa .profit is approximately 80c.per plate.if u don put expense yema kelyt

Mdala Wa Rue Have u factored labour, rent and rates?

Rutendo Faith aiwa i didnt calc that on th profit yeplate i think izvo zvezvakuda kucalculator yr total profits for th whole month depending on yr volumes then u subtrate thoz costs vana rent ava nana wages woona profit yaunosara nayo then ul c if its worth it.but um sure getting evn kaprofit ke$1000 pamwedzi its beta pane kuregera things are tough thez dayz

Pana Che 10kg feeds 30 pple nah sadza is around 60 to 70 percent water.so 10kg must feed more pple

Rutendo Faith sory wantd to say 5kg is 30 ppl 10kg around 60 pll

Zee Ncube How about labour

Govero Zimuto 1 piece chicken $0.35 according to chicken inn but labour rates and rent is the most challenging here

Rocca van der Bovas-Alex U are spot on pa $35 cents pa labour ndopaungakuvare

Govero Zimuto also uncertainities like weather bond note or cash shortages kikkk chinyika chacho ndopaunochi feeler

Rocca van der Bovas-Alex The cost of producing that plate of sadza is around 80c zvese including overheads its profitable huku 5 bucks giving u 13 pieces ari prime plus the back and offals which means ka piece kamapihwa is roughly 30 cents.sadza portion is 150 to 200g no calculator kuti mu 20kg munobuda 100 portions. Salt ne curry yamataura in a serving for 12 pipo u use 10g. Salt inoita dollar which means mu plaite yenyu mapinda around ye 8c . wekai muchidzika then u will find how much they are making.

Penyai Rotai kune sadza nenyama zve 0,50c  kuChitown

Ranganayi Maruta even in town graghton building next to beer engine yepa jameson hotel

Handson Ndlovu In Bulawayo that plate goes for $1

Mdala Wa Rue As well lean to buy zvipfuyo kana matengesa tusadza twenyu mu town .mbudzi hanga roadrunners.it will help yu to make variety of relish in the near future.

John Mlambo Tha catch is on the beef/chicken. Other ingredients are cheap. If you can get meat from ‘private’ abattoirs the better. There is a place in National you can buy a plate for $1 with three big pieces of beef!

John Mlambo Buying direct from the farm. Cut middleman expenses

Loice Mhondiwa Gheto sadza/rice zvine zinyama zihombe nesalad $1

One of the fastest ways to grow in the business sector is through winning tenders! If you master the art of winning tenders then congratulations to you. Tenders mean big dollars and in the case of Zimbabwe more than $300 million is spend every year through public tenders.

Like we always say at ZBIN, if you want success then follow the money! If you want to succeed in Zimbabwe the rule is to know where money is or flows and then simply follow the trail. The Government is always flighting tender adverts, Parastatals do the same, NGOs are not left out, schools, universities are actively involved. We have introduced a tender tracker that is only available to subscribed members. We produce this tender on a weekly basis and it basically shows the sectors where tenders are coming from and what it means about that sector.

If you get more than 2 months access to our tender tracker then you can have a feel of what is happening in terms of sectors where money is flowing to. We developed it because we realised that the Diaspora community does not have access to the tenders and are therefore left out in terms of knowing investment trends and opportunities.

So how do you win tenders?

The answer is simple-preparation! There is a wrong assumption that all tenders are corruptly awarded in the country. This writer has had an opportunity to oversee a substantial number of tender adjudication processes and am happy to report that i did not witness any misrepresentation of fraudulent activities. Most of the of the multi-million tender processes that i witnessed were above board, no conflict of interest and tenders being awarded to the best bidders. I however cannot talk about the rest of other tender processes that go on in the country but my recommendation is that there is still a window of opportunity to those that participate in tender processes in Zimbabwe.

No School of Tender Processes Education

I said it all depends on preparation right? So how does one prepare? As a company you must always be ready for tenders and getting ready is not a one day event, you have to continuously develop systems and processes that develops a strong company or organisation. Everyday processes you need to follow includes:

1.Company registration-register your company from day 1, do not wait for tenders inorder to register your company, all Zimbabwean tenders need registered companies.

2.Tax Compliance-Always make sure that you are up to date in terms of tax matters with ZIMRA, tax may not be enjoyable to pay but paying tax earns you marks during tenders.

3.Bank Management-Ensure that you bank all funds received, have a good track record of banking funds. Tenders need 3 month bank statements and if you produce a bank statement with no funds invested then you lose considerable marks with the tender review committee.

4.Credit Reference-It pays to be in good books with your customers and buyers, their good word or reference will earn you passing marks with tender review committees.

5. Audited Financial Statements-Preparing financial statements is a good thing to do so that you can know how you are faring financial wise, these reports are also required by external stakeholders such as potential funders, ZIMRA and others. One key benefit that is rarely talked about is ‘financial statements as a competitive advantage during tenders’. I remember once disqualifying a very good company whid had bid for a water reticulation tender. They had everything inorder-great experience, nicely designed files, a lot of funds in the bank , qualified personnel. They had submitted everything and were on there way to win a multi-million tender-only one document costed them the tender-an audited financial report! Come on, an audit that would have cost $1,000 versus $2million business? Yes that small document costed them the tender and chances are high that they will never know how they lost. A lot of SMEs are in the same boat, not appreciating the value of engaging qualified accountants to prepare their financial reports and also having them audited.

6.Presentable premises– Final evaluation of tenders involve visiting premises of shortlisted bidders. They will visit offices and award marks based on appearance and presentation. If you have offices in downtown and its a multi-million dollar tender then you should kiss goodbye the chances of winning it. Its even worse when you do not have offices! If you are a manufacturing company then there will be a warehouse assessment and interview with warehouse staff.

I have only covered 6 but there are a lot of other areas that you need to do but the above ones are the key ones that usually appear on tenders. You can pick any Zimbabwean newspaper, look at 3 tender adverts and verify.

Dr Strive Masiyiwa and Tenders

So how did Dr Strive Masiyiwa rise to multi million dollar wealth in a short period? A lot of factors can be attributed to his success but the model he used can be summarised into ‘Winning Tenders’. Sometimes he would win tenders without sufficient funding! He would then go and seek funding after winning tenders. His latest blog post on pitching to investors lifts a lid on how he won the mobile tender in Botswana.

He won because he had thoroughly prepared for the tender, he left no stone unturned as he thoroughly prepared for a tender which pitted him against some of the biggest telecoms giants in the world! The giants took everything for granted-imagine a French company with a global presence and a lot of resources competing against a small Zimbabwean company without experience….the company did not give a second chance to this minor unknown company.

They were to learn the hard way later when Mascom(Masiyiwa Communication) snatched the bun from under their noses. They were later to learn that Zimbabweans are indeed some of the most intelligent people on earth when the multi-million tender was awarded to MASCOM-what a hard lesson!

Below i will feature parts of what he wrote on his blog:

Our competitors came in private jets. On our side, some of my team traveled by car from Harare in Zimbabwe (a day’s journey) because we could not afford air tickets!

# Did you know that Faith has a twin?

It’s called Grace!

# We planned meticulously. # We rehearsed the bid questions over and over again. # We set up a mock process in our offices, and got a team to act as the adjudicators, and ask questions. # We practiced and practiced and practiced for two solid weeks!

When the day came, we appeared before a panel of adjudicators made up of Botswana government officials and telecoms experts from Sweden. The meeting was chaired by a leading Botswana lawyer called Mr Moses Lekaukau, a huge man with a thundering no-nonsense style.

I began my pitch by greeting the chairman in Setswana, their mother tongue. I then went into my pitch.

I can still remember some of the data that I used on Botswana’s demographics, its economic growth, the potential market… numbers, numbers, numbers!

After my initial pitch, they began to grill us on our presentation which was more than 900 pages: “On this page, you say that… Please explain, and what is the source of your data?”

My team and I knew that document like the back of our hands, and we enjoyed each question. The grilling lasted the whole day. I was fasting on that day, too!

A few weeks later the Botswana government announced the winner was Mascom Wireless and France Telecom (Orange) had come in second!

It’s is now 21 years since that “pitch.” We went on to set up Botswana’s and our own first telecoms business, which remains to this day the country’s number one operator.

Imagine my position at the time:

# No experience; # Facing global competitors; # No money.

I was also black. (In the minds of most people at that time, there was no such thing as a serious black entrepreneur).

Important Points from this:

We planned meticulously.# We rehearsed the bid questions over and over again. # We set up a mock process in our offices, and got a team to act as the adjudicators, and ask questions. # We practiced and practiced and practiced for two solid weeks!

Dr Masiyiwa is basically talking of the importance of planning, you need to thoroughly plan for tenders especially when the odds are stacked against you. The word ‘over’ is mentioned twice, the word practice is mentioned thrice.

Why is he repeating these key words several times? He is doing so because most tenders are poorly prepared. Some are prepared by 1 or 2 people but here we are being told that Masiyiwa did not do it alone, he had a team that practiced and practiced before leaving for Botswana for their biggest foreign tender assignment.

Mock Tender Process

You can tell that Masiyiwa was ahead of his times! He did what the Global Giants had taken for granted-thorough preparation! The giants who flew in by private jet obviously would not waste time and resources in preparations, they would simply follow processes that had worked well in the past-they were to receive a rude awakening when people who drove cars got the tender. A lot of big companies are in the same boat-few take tenders seriously, few practice enough. Dr Strive Masiyiwa knew of this weakness and took advantage. His practice sessions included a mock tender process-how many companies do that?

Conclusion

There is no school of tender processes for obvious reasons-this is where the big monies are and therefore those with information would rather keep it to themselves. Tender processes are not covered in financial subjects at university for obvious reasons- if you all participate in tenders then someone is going to lose out. Dr Masiyiwa mastered this art in 1997 and see where he is today! ZBIN will cover the art of tenders in detail in future and follow ups will include a Facebook Live coverage on this topic and more trainings for the business sector-do not be left out when we cover some of the issues and tips that i left out.

ZBIN Services

We provide  tender trackers to interested clients and also offer tender drafting, review and mock services.

Our Facebook Page of 29,000 was specifically formed in order to provide a platform for our members to discuss business issues. We realised that a lot of Facebook Pages that exist only cater for adverts with few tackling issues such as business discussions or enabling members to ask for advice and getting it.

Below we feature an inbox message from a member seeking help and we have posted the responses from our members.

 I own a restaurant in Zvishavane. Iam selling a plate of sadza for  dollar per plate. I have two employees who help in running the business. My rent is $200 a month, my employees get $100 each per month. On average, I sell $ 60 plates excluding week ends . My revenue ranges from  $80 to $100 a day.

My problem is that I have never received profit from this venture. I keep on pumping money especially for the employees but am not getting profits to  justify my continued investment.

Responses from the ZBIN Community

Fidelity Nkomo why achiti haasi kuita profit, of which his average sales per month are around 1800 and his monthly wage bill and rent combined is around 400 not including his own though, so pa 1400 inosara anoita sei nayo, does he buy raw materials worthy that much every day

Teacha Mudzana you can’t balance the overhead expenses unless &until you get access to his financial books but as a small accountant I will preview firstly on lack of financial discipline as someone said but remember we are talking of 60 plates equivalent to $60 ,so in essence the bill might be slightly higher than expected

Nyasha Mat Jax Jay Max Twosixthree hupfu 10kg is 7.09 the cheapest which is silo, cooking oil 2litre is 2.85, bundle mavegi is 1us you need 2 or 3, onion 1us, tomatoes 1us 4 20 you need aleast 40 tomatoes for the soup, kaylites , salt etc trust me I understand this fella been there you get 10/15us profit after a hard day work

Netcle Trish Mhlanga Look to getting cheaper ingredients and pa chicken ye $ 1 how many pieces do u serve per plate? Wher do u get ur beef? Do u buy wholesale hindquarter or whole mombe? Chickens u cn rear ur own…. buy bulk …

Tori Elles Mum I think this kind of business will only give you profit when you rear your own chickens, buy a whole cow from kumamusha, stop buying raw materials from supermarkets but from wholesalers and manufacturers, use gas if you were using electricity etc. You should have listed your expenses in detail though, hidey. If you have competition find out their source for raw materials. Also get a “contract” with companies to supply lunch and get paid end of week or month. That way you may realise some profits that’s if you lacking financial discipline from getting cash daily.

Comfort Maeresera The profit margin is very low in that king of business. Deal with the supply side, buy maize instead of mealie meal, slaughter your own beasts and rear your own chickens and train your employees properly

Lorriet Wekwa Madore Iwe huku 1 vanhu 20 wakaita sei usavape bacos

Makadho Norah Ngwarira vaseenzi avo. Be very very carefull. Vanogona kunga vachiba chikafu Chisatichabikwa, Oro kutotengesa dziri 100 plates iwe uchifunga its 60 Check mumabin pasi pasi vanoviga imomo. Fire them and get new ones and train and tighten.

Tawanda Maphosa part if not all of your solution can be found from answering two questions: Question 1: Are you making any profit per every plate sold? If No, then you may need to work on reducing your direct overheads e.g costs of ingredients, try finding cheaper sources, If YES, then move to the next question, Question 2: Are you breaking even? If NO, then you may need to check the varience & calculate the number of extra plates you may need to sell to break even and eventually make a profit, If YES, then it’s most likely you are misappropriating the funds, what you would then need to do is to make sure your personal finances​ are kept separate from your business finances​, keep proper business records, account for each and every business transaction (even mushandi akatenga domasi rimwe re 10 cents record it down), reduce costs by all means but also maint

Watson Midzi Budai pachena. Tipeiwo cost echikafu tione kuti muri kusara papi. Ndimi here kana kuti vashandi venyu vari kuita maths. Tsvagai a cheaper place. Or also cut manpower to one and yourself. Do you have a record of your sales cost and sales gaining quality standards (kwete kuzo cutr macosts kusvika pakutengesa mbodza nekuda kusaver gas) this is jus a bit i could help with, i hope t helps you grow your business well. All the best

We have put the free booklet for poultry below for your download

Loading...

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab

Download

Hydroponics is the art of rearing plants in a soil less media, what does this really mean?. Well this simply means growing a plant without the use of soil, the technique has been used for more than 3 decades in the developed world and has only been introduced in Zimbabwe not more than a decade ago tailor made specifically for the tobacco industry by Kutsaga Research Station Tobacco Research Board with tremendous results. This week we shall be looking at this technique in greater detail and learn how to use this technique particularly for those of you who are into nursery production business and specifically tobacco farmers.

If you have grown tobacco before then you must be well aware of the time consumed taking care of the tobacco seedlings which translates to a lot of labour days and huge wage costs. What if I tell you that there is a way in which you can cut those costs by 65% at the same time producing quality seedlings which will in turn create a great reputation for you if you are into seedling production or translate to a great crop establishment if you are into tobacco production? In this article we shall dwell on tobacco seedling production using this method since most farmers are already preparing to sow in their seedbeds in the next few days or weeks also mainly due to the huge email requests on the topic.

This method involves the use of trays which made of kaylite which are able to float in a specially made pond with water. The water will basically have a special liquid fertilizer added to it to in the process providing adequate amount of nutrients to the growing seedling which will be in pine bark acting as the soil.

Advantages of using this type of method

It uses fewer chemicals and in smaller quantities, it employs economical integrated management of diseases and pests, it uses less water and fertilizers ,it produces superior and more uniform drought tolerant seedlings, it offers additional flexibility in planning following pulling, it facilitates easier field management arising from a more uniform crop, it has a permanent seedbed site and there is no need for rotations, trays can last for five or more years if kept properly

What do I use in place of soil ?

Pine bark, washed river sand and water mixed in the ratio 1; 1; 0.5 by volume are used as the growing medium for the 200 cell trays. For 242 cell trays use 100% pine bark and water and mix in the ratio 1:0.5, or mix pine bark, sand and water in the ratio 3:1: 0,5 by volume. The ratio of the water may be reduced or increased depending on the moisture content of the other constituents. The pine bark used is supplied by Flora Pine Bark Produce (Pvt) Ltd in Mutare and Nyanga. Large pieces of pine bark or sand are removed by screening through a 6mm sieve.The pH of the pine bark should be maintained at 5.5.The sand can be a source of weed seeds, pathogens and nematodes and so it should be solarised, steamed or boiled before use. Limited amounts of amended composted pine bark are available at Kutsaga as Gromix.

How do I water the seedlings?

No need to worry about watering your seedlings remember the trays will be suspended in water all the time meaning that the seedlings are always in nutrient rich water. All you have to be aware of is making sure that the ponds are filled with water to a depth of 10 cm all the time.

Since the seedlings are in water how do I harden them before transplanting?

Seedlings should be sufficiently hardened so as to survive the difficulty of transplanting under difficult conditions experienced in the lands. Hardening is done by ensuring that the seedlings utilize most of the nitrogen early in the growth and that little remains in the water during the last two to three weeks before transplanting. Clipping also has a hardening effect. For further hardening remove the fertilizer solution from the waterbed, and replace the solution with water only for the last week of production.The simplest test for “hardness” is that a seedling should be able at least to be bent over without snapping.

Common challenges

Algae Growth, actual harm to the seedlings is unusual.Cover as much as possible of the surface water with trays so as to exclude sunlight on water, which encourages algal growth.It can also be controlled by delaying the fertilizing of the float bed to 14 days after seeding, this allows the seedlings to germinate and grow above any algal growth on the cell surface.As a preventative measure apply a Quaternary Ammonium Compound (QAC) or copper oxychloride in float water at sowing. Copper oxychloride is applied at the rate of 0.012 g/L and Pentakill at 0.18 ml/L for one hectare.

Others

Dry Cells: Water fails to move up the cell by a process called “wicking” due to loose compaction of media in cells. No wicking means no germination. Follow the tray filling and handling procedure correctly.

Cold injury: The float beds should not be allowed to get cold. The June sown nurseries need to have both cropgard and plastic tent and a greenhouse.

Salt Injury: Greyish salt deposits on substrate surface. Severe cupping of seedling. The possible solution is to water with a knapsack sprayer thoroughly to leach the salts from the surface. Also cover with Cropgard or a sterile mulch plus plastic cover at night.

For a more detailed guide please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Emmanuel D.N Dube is the senior agronomist at Agro Aid Trust and Chief Agronomist at ZIBN. If you have any questions you can email him agroaidtrustzimbabwe@gmail.com /+263783 495 396

We bring you an interesting approach to organisational development-the  Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) approach. Important to organisational development practitioners involved in change management and capacity building initiatives.

print

Call for Applications: Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) Youth Leadership and Development Course – Winter School 15 – 22 July 2017
Deadline: COB 30 June 2017

The Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) is looking to develop young leaders aged 18 to 25 years who have an interest in community development? If you are a young woman or man within that age cohort, this is an opportunity for you to participate in the Youth Leadership and Development Course (Winter School 2017). If you are interested in taking part in this year’s Winter School, don’t wait, apply now!

This year’s Winter School shall commence from the 15th to the 22nd of July 2017. The venue and logistics for the course shall be disclosed to successful applicants.

To apply
To  apply for the 2017 Winter school complete the application form here and email to: winterschoolplus@gmail.com

Hard copy applications and reference forms can be posted to  7 Capri Road , Highlands, Harare.

Female applicants; participants from rural Zimbabwe aged 18-25yrs are encouraged to apply. Winter school alumni from previous years (2005- 2016) are not eligible to apply for this year’s winter school.

For enquiries contact Samantha or Emilie on 04-496 889, Mobile / Whatsapp 0775320238, +47 91701240  or 0772 993 779 or email: winterschoolplus@gmail.com