WOMEN must be actively involved in farming, with a keen interest in climate-proofed agriculture to attain high yields and end the dependence on other people for support, Agric4She patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa has said.
Speaking during a tour of exhibition stands at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, the First Lady said she was charmed by women’s involvement in farming.
High quality crops which were being exhibited spoke volumes about the massive investment in terms of expertise and time that the First Lady has put in through her Agric4She inclusive farming programmes to achieve success countrywide.
Amai Mnangagwa was in the company of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s wife Colonel Miniyothabo Chiwenga and other high-ranking officials.
“I am pleased with what I have seen here. When we were teaching the women, I thought it would just pass, but they took the teachings seriously and forged ahead with them to an extent that there is nothing one cannot find at this show when we talk of farming.
“I therefore, encourage all women, including all those who were not yet part of the Agric4She programme that this is now an opportunity. Cases where a mother gets visitors and waits for permission to slaughter a chicken for them from her husband, who went for a funeral last week, are now in the past, gone are the days,” she said in jest.
“We now want women to have their own resources like granaries, goats, chickens, ducks, pigs, cattle including traditional grains which are drought resistant. Everywhere I am going I am encouraging all women to be involved in farming for food security. Now we are faced with climate change so this is why we are promoting traditional grains which are tolerant to bad weather and by so doing we will have food on the table so that our children eat healthy.”
Dr Mnangagwa, who is also the country’s Health and Child Care Ambassador, underlined the importance of traditional grains in the nutrition of the family.
“As health ambassador, I also say when you are sick, traditional grains will follow you in the hospital where you eat sorghum porridge before taking your pills. Izvi zvinoita kuti munhu akurumidze kupora zvichibatsirana nemishonga yaanenge achipihwa nanachiremba. The whole family must participate in farming so that everyone knows how to grow food. Now the farming season has started and people have started digging Pfumvudza holes to plant crops. I encourage Agric4She farmers to go for traditional grains which are resistant to climate change and have food security,” Dr Mnangagwa, herself an accomplished farmer,” she said.
She also toured stands where those in poultry production were exhibiting.
Invited by the First Lady to comment and share her thoughts as a woman on the role women were playing as part of their contribution to the country’s economy, Mrs Chiwenga said she supports the many programmes being spearheaded by Amai Mnangagwa for the benefit of women and the nation at large. “We also grow crops following the encouragement by our President. The President is saying, as Zimbabweans, tisu vene venyika ino. We are the people behind what happens in our country and we should do it for ourselves and work hard.
“We will support people doing projects like we saw at this agricultural show assessing that which makes us succeed in the Zimbabwean context. We also support the programmes being enunciated by the First Lady. Women are the ones who define homes, musha mukadzi, so we should be on the forefront, working,” she said.
The tour started in the Ministry of Health and Child Care hall where the First Lady and her entourage visited Pathology services, the Chinese traditional medicine cubicle, African traditional medicine, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals operating theatre, Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, Oncology services, Mental health services and mobile clinics where both men and women were being screened for cervical, breast and prostate cancers for free.
The mobile clinics included one from Angel of Hope Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Child Care where one served those aged 49 years and below while the other served those who are 50 years and above.
Amai Mnangagwa also visited the Agriculture produce hall where she came face-to-face with the success of her interventions in agriculture through the popular Agric4She programme.
Among the exhibitors was Gogo Peggy Bhajabha (69), a farmer from Mashonaland Central in Mazowe.
“I was awarded a certificate by the First Lady as an Agric4she farmer. I grow groundnuts, sorghum, soya beans, sunflower, rice, butternut, pumpkins orange maize, orange sweet potato that we grind into flour and porridge for children. I dry vegetables.
“At this agricultural show, I came out second among seed producers and received a trophy yesterday. On traditional grains, I came out first in the province. I am thankful to our mother who empowers us as women. She gave us inputs and encourages us so that we look after our families well eating healthy food,” she said.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Dr John Basera paid tribute to the First Lady for her efforts to include women, who constitute 52 percent of the country’s population, into farming programmes.
“We would like to appreciate our patron for Agric4she programme the First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa for her work. We have seen women’s participation in agriculture and mainstreaming of agriculture is growing for growth, thanks to her work in terms of encouraging more women farmers so that they participate in agriculture so that they are not economic bystanders.
“The women’s category constitutes about 52 percent of our population and there is no economy that will grow without 52 percent of its population therefore, we appreciate her work in terms of luring and attracting more women and crowding more women into the mainstreaming of agricultural activities. We have quite a number of programmes like Pfumvudza4She, where we are saying over 1,7 million to 2 million of the beneficiaries should be women and we have achieved the same and 1,8 million women. We also have Horticulture4She programme whereby we are crowding in women in the horticulture sub space and we have seen a number of women getting into the horticulture sub space.
“We also have Livestock4she, irrigation development and mechanisation4She among many other programmes that we have seen over the past two years where Amai has taken these programmes inclusively,” said Dr Basera.
Mrs Ngaru, a reproductive health officer in the Ministry of Health and Child Care under the Family Health directorate spoke on the importance of the mobile clinics and cancer screening.
“We are here with two mobile clinics for cervical cancer screening. We have a bus from Angel of Hope Foundation which is supported by the First Lady and we also have the Ministry of Health bus so we are working in conjunction so that we help men and women through cancer screening for cervical, breast and prostate cancers. This is being done for free. The First Lady as the ambassador for health is going around the country with Angel of Hope Foundation mobile clinic in conjunction with the Ministry of Health screening women and men in all the provinces and remote areas. The response at this agricultural show has been good and so far we have screened over 100 women and men who have come through. So we are doing visual inspections with acetic acid where we get prompt results. We are also doing pap smear in conjunction with pathology lab where we take specimens and results come out in two days. The response has been very good especially when we come to these places like the agricultural show and ZITF,” she said.
Similar words were echoed by Dr Kudzai Makova, a clinical oncologist at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals Radiotherapy Centre.
“We are giving awareness on various cancers with a thrust on cervical cancer which is affecting a lot of women. According to statistics, this the number one cancer in Zimbabwe. What is special about cervical cancer is that it is a disease that we studied and we understood its natural history that it is caused by the human papilloma virus and we can screen, prevent and it is curable when identified early.
“That is actually one of the recommendations and we are very proud of our partners who assist us especially with respect to screening. Screening of cervical cancer is a very important part of early detection and Angel of Hope Foundation is one of our key partners which is helping a lot of women in Zimbabwe to be screened so that the disease does not spread and we have good treatment outcomes. Angel of Hope Foundation also assists us a lot through accommodation for cancer patients.
“We have cancer patients who come from different parts of the country who will be struggling with accommodation in Harare and they have been a very key partner to us and the assistance that they give to our patients is sincerely appreciated.
“Among men there has been a huge interest in prostate cancer which is the commonest cancer we find among them. We can also screen and detect it using the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test, which is a blood test for men over the age of 40, especially those with a family history of prostate cancer can benefit from that test so that they can be diagnosed early and commenced early on treatment. The thrust of our stand is to increase cancer awareness so that people are screened early even in the absence of signs and symptoms of cancer so that they get good treatment outcomes,” he said.
Source: The Herald
