Achieving More, Together, in Zimbabwe
By: Cnfa, Cultivating New Frontiers In Agriculture
Tags: Collaboration, Farming, Zimbabwe, Volunteering, Usaid

Since 2019, the Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)-implemented Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program has worked side-by-side with the USAID Mission in Zimbabwe to address knowledge gaps within farmer associations and cooperatives selected from four USAID projects — two Feed the Future projects: the Crop Development and Livestock Development programs, and two food security programs: Amalima, and the Enhancing Nutrition, Stepping Up Resilience and Enterprise Project. Together, the four USAID projects support 333,000 beneficiaries and represent a robust network for potential F2F collaboration.

To date, 16 joint F2F assignments have been implemented, including farmer trainings aimed at controlling a potentially devastating maize pest, the Fall Armyworm, and Brucellosis, a livestock disease that also harms humans. Additional assignments provided business and financial management training to farmer groups and cooperatives.

The collaborations between CNFA’s F2F program and the four USAID projects have also produced a sense of “common ownership” — building commitment and camaraderie through each volunteer assignment to provide the support necessary to ensure success.

CNFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer program in Zimbabwe

For example, USAID Zimbabwe projects have participated in developing scopes of work for volunteer assignments and selecting volunteer recruits. They have also provided training venues and day-to-day support to volunteers. In addition to these efforts, CNFA regularly invites project partners and USAID representatives to its volunteer briefings. Together, the resulting input serves to better inform volunteers, shape training content, and improve the design of subsequent assignments.

Leaders of USAID Zimbabwe-funded projects have also expressed their positive impressions with the results of F2F’s volunteer assignments. As Prisca Nyagweta, Acting Deputy Chief of Party of the Feed the Future Zimbabwe — Crop Development program noted, “The training provided by CNFA’s volunteer at the Exchange Irrigation Scheme in 2019 strengthened the capacity of the Irrigation Management Committee (IMC). [It] brought transparency and accountability to business management and transformed the mindset of farmers to focus on profitable enterprises.” Godfrey Mudimu, Chief of Party for the same program, elaborated that the training “empowered women participants, making them more confident so that they now accept the challenge of taking up key positions within the IMC.”

CNFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer program in Zimbabwe

To date, F2F has trained 1,051 beneficiaries of USAID Zimbabwe-funded projects, of whom 59 percent were women. One of these beneficiaries, Kunashe Ndoda, a young dairy farmer with the Feed the Future Zimbabwe — Livestock Development program, explained how he sees the impact of F2F assistance: “Before the business development skills training that we received from F2F, our farming was a repetition of mistakes. However, after attending this empowering session, we are now able to record profits and losses and make informed decisions about our enterprises.”

And the story is not over. With all four USAID Zimbabwe partner projects ending in 2020, Farmer-to-Farmer and its collaborators are already reviewing gains and gaps to identify areas for future volunteer support.