Among many small, poorly-lit houses built too close together in the crowded slum and with no drainage or access to tap water is a house that Alice Gomba and her family call home. On her doorstep stalks of green leafy vegetables and potatoes grow in soil-filled sacks.
To this mother of six, the plants are her livelihood. Her children know they must be careful around the plants and not knock them over. “Children in the slum understand hunger and know where their food comes from,” Gomba said in a recent interview.
600 plants
This is a slum dweller’s version of urban farming. “I grow seedlings of potatoes and vegetables like spinach, green pepper and onions in sacks filled with soil,” said Gomba.
“I grow more than 600 plants in bags in my back yard and harvest some 1,200 kg of potatoes. The crop is of varying age so I can harvest every month,” said fellow urban farmer, Theresa Muzanenhamo of Budiriro 5B, Harare.
Agricultural extension officer, Kennedy Chari told this reporter that sack farming is both healthy and cost effective. Materials are readily available, it is not labour intensive and therefore provides a simple way of producing wholesome food that is free of harmful chemicals
Other families who have started sack growing said that besides conserving soil, this method has helped them to turn around their fortune. A first grade pocket of potatoes, weighing 10 kg, fetches $15 on the market.
“Urban slums are notorious for ‘sewer farming’, placing unsuspecting consumers at great risk for diseases such as cholera, amoeba, typhoid and even cancer,” advised Patrick Mukoyi, public health expert with the Ministry of Health.
High risk
“The sewers that some farmers exploit come directly from industries and contain heavy metals such as lead and mercury, placing consumers at a high risk of cancer and kidney failure,” said Patricia Makore, another public health expert.
“Not only does exposure to lead interfere with the development of the nervous system, it can also lead to permanent learning and behaviour disorders,” Makore added.
However, unsuspecting citizens continue to consume foods rich in heavy metals. Some of these foods are grown by Grenara resident Fenice Duri.
Showing great tolerance for the overwhelming stench of the open sewers and either oblivious or disinterested in the dangers and serious health implications to consumers, Duri uses her bare hands to direct sewerage water through the narrow troughs she has dug in her land.
Another woman known only as Olivia, proudly grows vegetables such as rape, spinach and covo in a sewerage line adjacent to the Grenara slums, boasted to this reporter that her market base is overwhelming:
“There are days when I sell up to 10 bags of vegetables. Trucks collect loads from me to take to leading food markets such as Mbare and Machipisa,” said Olivia.
According to statistics available from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the country has failed to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (UNMDG) of lowering its infant mortality rate to 25 deaths per 1000 by the year 2015.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the under-five mortality rate was 94 deaths per 1000 live births in 2009 and 75 deaths per 1000 in 2014. Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of death.
Post published in: Agriculture