Tendai Guvamombe
As the national economy continues on a free fall, many people are now increasingly embracing entrepreneurship through various activities in order to make ends meet.
A survey conducted by Spiked Online Media at various places in Harare like Glen Norah, Budiriro and Hopely indicates that many people have drastically changed the traditional narrative in telling their socio-economic plight as they now earn a living through poultry, piggery and fishery among other activities.
Augustine Mutumba, Chairperson of Harvest Poultry Farmers Group (HPFG) confided that they formed their group as an entrepreneurship hub some fours years ago in the quest to scale up a networking platform for local peers in poultry.
“We started our entrepreneurship programme in 2017 after realising the importance of our strength in uplifting our livelihoods. As upcoming farmers, we also realised that we could earn a living through networking and sharing ideas among our group members in poultry, piggery and fishery.”
Despite founding a good economic initiative in the quest to improve their standards of living, HPFG members are currently facing torrid times as their efforts to acquire land from the government to fully implement their activities are proving to be in vain.
Tsitsi Manika a founding member in the advisory committee of HPFG expressed disgruntlement at the way they are failing to access land, a predicament which has seen them carrying out their poultry businesses at residential homes.
“Since we started this initiative in 2017, we have been able to supply our poultry projects to various companies but our biggest worry is on land. We have the capacity to scale up our activities and because of shortage of land our business is limited as we are operating from homes,” she said.
Langton Chamuwarura, another group member, also echoed similar sentiments. He said it was high time the government recognised their economic initiative through granting them land which they have been longing to acquire but to no avail.
“I think the government should recognise our activities because we have a good initiative which needs support. Going forward, we need land. We are now limited to grow up as a group because all the profits we would have generated from our poultry activities at the end of the day are channelled towards rental expenses, a situation which is hindering our operations.”
Sibongile Gara, an upcoming entrepreneur who holds a Masters in Finance Degree decided to venture into poultry business after failing to secure employment and has been making positive strides to acquire land for poetry for the past four years.
“After completion of my university education I thought I would employ myself through poultry. I have been trying to acquire land for the past 4 years and my main worry is that I have been kept on the waiting list for too long.”
Harvest Poultry Farmers Group (HPFG) members have been making positive strides in exchanging views, ideas and is a networking platform to enhance group members with clientele base.