She responded in various ways – sometimes she would try to distract us with songs and stories. Occasionally she would just tell us to get on with it. The yield wasn’t great, but we had enough to eat – most of the time.
But now there is a way to increase those yields using conservation farming. And a whole crop of mothers are still toiling in the fields in Zimbabwe, but getting a better return thanks to this training. Foundations for Farming enables farmers to raise their yield from less than one tonne a hectare to anything up to 8tonnes – meaning not only is there enough to eat, there is an excess to sell and raise much needed income. Twelve African women are climbing Mt Snowdon in Wales on September 22 to raise money to expand the work of Foundations for Farming. To sponsor them or find out more: email: na.ncube@theglobalnative.org.uk