Our Madagascar Lima Beans farming trials will turn a year old next month and how has been progress?

From less than 20 plants, I have managed to fill up a 20litre bucket with the Madagascar Lima Beans which should be the highest in the country. I accidentally bumped into the beans around August 2023 and at first ignored them but only taking interest during November when the first beans became ripe. I was still oblivious to the immense value of the beans and had to seek help on the type of beans in my backyard garden—and eating the first beans took a leap of faith.

So it’s almost a year now and I have shared the beans with hundreds of others with the first distribution in December 2023. Amazing results from the trials showing great potential for those interested in going commercial.

For home consumption—you just need at most 5 good plants and this is what a few Zimbabweans have been doing for decades. Going commercial is an unpatented idea from ZBIN and hundreds of farmers are getting ready for the 2024/5 Agricultural Season.

Winter farming—Winter has proved to be what is already written by researchers—a difficult period with reduced growth due to frost. However with continued watering, the impact is reduced. Only old plants are mildly impacted but plants from March and April are doing well.

The verdict? Great potential for Zimbabwean farmers to grow Madagascar Lima Beans which have an explosive growth rate and cost effective as there is no need for fertilizers and pesticides.

Have you done your 2024 Strategic Planning yet? Chances are very high that you did—now it’s time for you to review what you planned versus the latest results from the Households Welfare Monitoring Survey for Zimbabwe.

The latest Round 10 survey shows access to basic food necessities shocks due to various factors, chief of which is inflation and affordability. It also shows the currency use by households and the main sources of income at household level.

The economy is now almost full dollarized and this will bring in new opportunities and risks. Neighbouring countries likely to be lured by the greenback and flood our streets with their products. Enterprising Zimbabweans to also venture more into import opportunities. Will there be currency reforms to reverse the dollarization? There are already plans in place if we are to go by recent currency reforms. However once a country crosses the Rubicon of Dollarization—almost impossible to reverse.

Anyway some o f the highlights include the following;

The main source of income for households are 1.Farming, followed by 2.Salaries and 3. Non farming Enterprises. In your business plan—you should have captured the above 3 income line items. For instance if you have a vehicle servicing business—are you capturing farmers in targeted marketing? If you are an NGO—do you have farming as one of your programs?

Farming and Non Farming Enterprises account for 42% of income for households in Zimbabwe which is twice the income coming from salaries. This shows the rise in impact of the small businesses in the country.

Formal and informal diaspora remittances account for 8% of households income. Therefore for every dollar circulating in the economy, at least 10 cents is officially from outside the country. A very important benchmark for business planning as some of the decision makers at household level are based outside the country. Are you targeting the diaspora in your marketing campaigns?

The country doesn’t have unemployment benefits—which is worrisome as NGOs are contributing a paltry 2% to household income and 5% is coming from the government. However the gap is being filled by family members assistance which is at 13%0. There is a gap for insurance companies and banks to create pensions and small businesses.

Not much coming from property income and therefore projections from the wealth taxes not expected to significantly contribute to the fiscus.

Perhaps time to tweak your focused outputs in 2024 and worryingly, the nation continues to experience inflation shocks despite significant dollarization moves.