FARMER, GEZILE MWANZA
Gezile Mwanza is a passionate farmer in Petauke district, Zambia. She has been growing vegetables on a small piece of land. In her garden production, Gezile has gained basic vegetable farming skills which has helped her with household needs and support her children to school.
She has a reliable water source now and she is looking forward to experiment with new vegetable varieties and expand her production and meet the demand of her customers. She is also looking forward to step away from synthetic fertilizers to improve her soil and lower the cost.
About Gezile Mwanza
Gezile Mwanza is born in the year 1981, she lives in Zyambo village, Kalindawalo Chiefdom. She is married and has 7 children, 4 girls and 3 boys. Gezile started her garden in the year 2007 and at that time she was struggling with watering her garden, her water source was a scoop hole which involved a lot of labor by using watering canes to water the garden. During hot season water dried up and as a result production was quite a challenge. Upon hearing about Jacana she didn’t hesitate to attend interviews and trainings. She was selected and was called for the business training. During the training Gezile Mwanza performed well and qualified to be one of the AFAS project whereby she will be guided for five years.
Donor
Gezile Mwanza is supported by AFAS.
Jacana’s role
Jacana will provides Gezile with the following support:
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- Business and financial training
- A borehole and a solar pump
- Agro support and guidance
- Bookkeeping guidance.
Provided training
You can also download the manuals for these trainings:
Guidance and monitoring
August 2024
Reducing on the cost of production, Gezile Mwanza was trained in making of organic pesticides using cheap local available materials that are easily sourced and other materials that can be produced in the garden such as Tithonia leaves, garlic, ginger, onion, pawpaw, chilli etc. Using organic pesticides will provides numerous benefits at Gezile’s, garden and the environment by choosing organic pesticide for it protect the crops from pests while promoting a healthy and sustainable farming or gardening practices.
July 2024
Gezile Mwanza was guided in land preparation, she was guided in using conservation agriculture practice because it has limited soil disturbance, she also leaves crop residues to mix with the soil, mulches as much as possible and diverses and rotates the crops.
June 2024
Gezile was visited to check on the progress of the nursery and guidance was given in management of cabbage on nursery. It is her first time to plant f1 cabbage trying to see if it can do well in her garden and also if can fetch her good market.
April 2024
Gezile was Awarded with a Voucher at the AFAS Award day in Chipata.
After the evaluation process, the results for all the farmers were put together and Gezile came out to be the best female farmer in implementation and was awarded as a way of motivating her on the activities she is doing in her garden with the knowledge obtained from Jacana through trainings and visits by field officer. She used her voucher to purchase tools to use in her garden in her day activities.
March 2024
JACANA organized farmers to evaluate themselves in different components such as; garden layout, implementation of activities, innovativeness and also bookkeeping, all AFAS farmers visited Gezile’s field where she was evaluated, this helped farmers identify the strength and weakness in their implementation, learn from mistakes and gives room to improve.
January 2024
Besides vegetable production, Gezile Mwanza was guided in planting fruit trees such as oranges and lemons that would at some point start producing fruits which will be sold and increase on income levels. Tree planting is important for they reduce the amount of water runoff, reduces erosion and pollution in waterways and may also reduce the effect of flooding.
February 2023
Gezile was trained in making organic manure (bokashi) organic manure improves soil fertility and helps the soil to maintain moisture content thus improves the crop yield.
Besides vegetable production, Gezile Mwanza was guided in planting fruit trees such as oranges and lemons that would at some point start producing fruits which will be sold and increase on income levels. Tree planting is important for they reduce the amount of water runoff, reduces erosion and pollution in waterways and may also reduce the effect of flooding.
June 2022
Gezile was selected by Jacana for the five year AFAS project. The first step was a business, financial and marketing training. She was very eager to learn and was happy with the information she gained during the training.
