When i was in upper 6 I did the unthinkable, I asked for my own piece of land from my grand mother Mbuya Munemo! I had seen the value of land at a young age and decided to have my own piece of land before going to college. The question my grand mum asked was why i wanted land when i was not yet married, she added another question-why i wanted land at such a young age.

I did my best to explain that i was investing for the future and also the fact that noone had an interest in the land, no current grand son or daughter had interest in the land. To make matters worse a prominent banker was eying our ancestral land. To cut to the chase i got my own 5 hectares before enrolling for my Accounting Degree at a local university.

I had seen value in the land at a young age, the land was close to a reliable water source, our rural area is a 40 minute drive from the Mutoko Road toll gate-i did not make sense to me why most people were shunning the land. What also inspired my acquisition was the fact that my late grand father who had passed one before  i was born had an interesting story to tell about land.

My late grand father had moved from his area of birth, Gora in Mhondoro in search of land for his big family. He had done a lot to secure land for each child. Unfortunately when he passed on, most of his kids left for the city and few valued rural land. So i was the only muzukuru who carried on with the dream of my grand parents-full utilisation of rural land!

What businesses can you do with rural land?

Some Hararians are involved in a lot of agricultural activities in the peri urban areas such as Seke,Goromonzi, Domboshava, Chihota and Musana. We hope to carry out a detailed  study of these areas but most residents are involved in commercial activities that range from chicken rearing, rabbit rearing, piggery, cattle fattening. Some are involved in agro-processing activities and those with large pieces of land grow various crops such as maize, sugar beans, tomatoes, onions and cabbages.

Some are even setting up green houses especially in areas such as Domboshava and Goromonzi. What has enabled this investment is the availability of transport and a ready market of agricultural products in Harare.

We even have lorries that come to farmers inorder to help them ferry agricultural produce to the market. Long back it used to be farmers looking for transport, now the trend is reversing.

The availability of solar energy has also facilitated the expansion of agricultural activities because now people can sink boreholes and use solar energy to irrigate crops. The solar energy can also be used to provide light and other services to the household.

Below we feature an inbox request from one of our members. The responses covered are from our active members on our ZBIN Facebook Page.

Hello Admin, I hope i find you well. Please post for me on the forum… Im looking for an income generating idea on a 6 acre plot in a rural area quite a distance from an urban area but close to a seasonal water source.

Responses

Edson Chivanga What do you have in mind and how much knowledge do have for that so that we can start from there. In business every idea can give you a good outcome but the best one comes out of what you enjoy most and we can give you ideas to grow that vision.

Vokal DaPoet Depending on soil structure, there are a number of things that one can plant.

Rutendo Faith lavener
roses
aloe vera
ginger
tumeric
ginseng
coconut trees
strawberries
hazvina kuwandirwa especially if u have good capital plus soil will determine

Mai Mrehwa ginseng takes years to grow n be selleable

Penyai Rotai nhai anotenga aloe vera ndiyani

Rutendo Faith u try pharmaceutical companies nevanogadzira mishonga and herbs

Mudiwavashe Kamoto I like the plants outlined by Rutendo Faith koz sometimes zvoda kubuda mugurumwandira kuty uite mari. Kwete kungowa TOMATOES.

Justice Mungwini WHERE exactly z the plot…WHAT exactly do you mean by ‘seasonal water source’….HOW much capital u wanna invest…WHAT re others in that area doing…

Mudiwavashe Kamoto Above everything do yu have the calling in farming.Farming is a passionate venture it has to be something that comes from yur heart it’s not something you can do becoz others are making money out of it. Take yur tyme to do a self examination. It may sound weird but I tell yu. Yu just need to go on yur planning table

by Shikoh Gitau

A story is told of a technology company that creates and deploys life-saving mobile phone services. Based in Cape Town, this technology company developed a revolutionary technology with a mission to assist community health workers from the local township to better monitor their HIV-positive patients. The mobile application fulfilled all the usability requirements; it was easy to use, adoptable to local language, and solved a vey specific use. On launching the services, it was a flop. Further studies indicated that, while all the technical and social requirements were met, and community health workers were excited at the prospect of using it, they were not using it. The question there was: What had gone wrong?

Before I explain, I will share another anecdote. Recently I was engaged in a heated discussion on the role of technology for development. The mostly older, Western-educated male audience, while largely reluctant to adopt technology in some areas, was open to the idea that technology could make a difference, which came as a pleasant surprise to me. However, that is as far as the pleasantries reached, because the next statement was, “Women, Technology, Rural and Africa… what do you mean? That is an oxymoron! We should just forget that and invest on the urban youth, those are the catalyst to development, and they are the future.” This statement sent a chill down my spine. Is it really an oxymoron?

One thing is clear, African women remain largely unaccounted for in the technology sector. The gap in all spheres – leadership, labour force and usage – is wider than the world average. What is causing this digital gender gap? Is it lack of the correct technology? Is it lack of relevant content online, or is it due to the long-held myth that girls are just not good enough to pursue science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called “STEM careers”; nor to use technology, much less in the technological field? But the even bigger question is: Can anything be done to reverse this trend?

In January, the African Development Bank, hosted an invigorating roundtable with the theme “Women and Technology: Increasing Access, Use, Employment and Leadership” in the Bank’s South African Resource Centre (SARC). The roundtable brought together the visiting delegation of TechWomen, with some of the leading voices for women and technology in South Africa. TechWomen is a US State Department-funded program, whose goal is to increase the number of women technology entrepreneurs in the global south through training and mentorship. The delegation was made up of senior women in leadership in the Silicon Valley.

The objective of the roundtable was to discuss ways in which the represented companies, organizations and individuals would approach the issue to increase the holistic participation of women in technology. Everyone at the table was already a converted advocate and activist on the issue. However, the questions raised included: What are the similarities in challenges across the Atlantic? What lessons can be learned from each of the experiences? And what are the possible areas of collaboration and partnership?

The issue of cyber security, especially for young girls who were accessing the Internet for the first time, was a cross-cutting theme. The participants, especially those who were mothers, voiced concerns about how to ensure the safety of their children online even on the simplest of phones.

There was also a discussion around education and possible policy, curriculum and structural interventions to attract and retain the number of women who pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) from grade school, through to tertiary institutions. Pointing out examples such as Harvey Mudd College, which has seen an increase of women taking computer science. Additional actions suggested was close collaboration with governments, and special incentives to universities to increase the number of women pursuing STEM.

A major source of discussion was the design of technology and, as one participant pointed out, “it is very hard for an all pale male design team, to have the perspective of a mahogany female” referring the design teams of many of the widely used technology. The context that determines if an African female will be a technology user is complex concoction of culture, socialization, infrastructure and education, to mention just a few. These are issues that may not all be well understood through a survey or usability studies, but rather through a real-life experience and only an African woman could fully express her perspective, and those of women like her. It was therefore pointed out that there is a need for more African women to either be creating the technologies, or to be part of teams creating technology.

Adoption of some of the suggestions that came out of the discussion is a priority for the Bank. These included the creation of special internships and scholarship tracks to catalyze the increase of women in the workforce, working with governments and educational institutions to adopt some of the best practices to ensure that they attract and retain women in the STEM fields of work, and supporting women to innovate and start their own technology businesses. It is important to demonstrate why women and especially rural women should be using technology. For instance, women form over 60% of the Africa rural population, are responsible for approximately 75% of the agricultural labour, and produce 60% to 80% of the food^[1]. Evidence shows that, if they had the same access to productive resources including technology as men, they could increase their yields, raising total agricultural output, in turn reducing the number of hungry people in the world. Finally, there is the case of role models: showcasing some of the women who are already working in the STEM fields on the continent is important to motivate young girls, who otherwise lack someone to look up to.

Going back to the story of community health workers in South Africa and the live-saving application I started with, Lerato, a 32-year-old community health worker who lives in Gugulethu, has to walk to work in Khayelitsha Township, where Siba and her family lives. Siba is one of the 15 families affected by HIV under Lerato’s care. The daily commute through the the sprawling township is not safe. To ensure her safety, Lerato often disguises herself by wearing a cloth on her head and conceals all her valuables in her undergarments. The team that created the community health worker application did not take into account the commute and the safety measures that Lerato has to undertake. Further testing did not uncover why the Lerato was not using the service. But when a new design team took over the project, a woman in the team took only a day to discover the problem. The mobile phone that held the application which was issued to Lerato was too big. It could not easily fit into her bra.