Well known in Ward 1’s Washayadonha village under Chief Seke, the family’s piggery project is slowly becoming a lucrative income-generating venture. It now boasts more than 60 pigs, 25 of which are sows, and is also benefitting villagers who are now able to afford pork at a subsidised price.
Precious Shonhiwa (42), the brains behind the project, said she thought of venturing into piggery farming after realising that her husband’s income was too little to sustain their family.
“We have 10 children and six grandchildren and we were struggling to make ends meet,” she said.
“I started saving up $5 weekly until my money was at least $90. I went to a farm in Beatrice and bought a piglet which i kept in one of the fowl runs since i had not yet built a pig sty.”
When her husband realised that she was rearing the piglet in a fowl run, he moulded bricks and built a sty that could accommodate at least 20 pigs.
“After about three months, I borrowed a boar to mate with my sow and that was the beginning of a blooming venture,” she said.
They s ell the porkers at Koala Park butcheries where each one fetches at least $300.
“We managed to finish building our eight-roomed family house and sink a borehole. Our lives have greatly improved as we have even bought a Nissan 323, which we use to transport pig feed from Makoni shopping centre,” said Shonhiwa.
The Shonhiwa’s third born son Brighton (22), who was based in Durban, returned home last year to assist his parents in their income generating project. “I realised that Ii was making peanuts doing menial jobs in South Africa and decided to come and assist my parents grow this pig business,” said Brighton.
“You need to know the symptoms of the diseases that affect pigs so that you can realise big and healthy porkers. But because we vaccinate our animals regularly, we hardly have any problems in relation to their health,” he said.
“The major challenge that we have is lack of transport since we use the Nissan 323 to take our porkers to Koala Park abattoir. Sometimes we have to transport more than six porkers and we have to make more than two trips,” he said.
Post published in: Agriculture
Please keep print success stories. Tired of hearing negative news on Zim!
This article is very good and inspirational. I also hope to start a small piggery in the near future. I hope to visit the Shonhiwa family to learn from their hands on expiriences. This one for the reporter, I do not believe there is a Nissan 323, if its a 323 it has to be a Mazda. If its a nissan sedan or station wagon it has to be a Sunny or Sentra. That said, its a good article all the same.