Gwanda -Progressive Garden members are enjoying financial benefits from their well-established horticulture garden.

The 43-member group was formed through the consolidation of four hard-working Self Help Groups (SHGs) in 2018, with the support of Hand in Hand Zimbabwe and its partners.

Previously, SHG members would experience poor harvests due to drought and this interfered with the group members’ ability to earn a decent living.

After joining HiHZim, everything however changed for the better. The members received support through business trainings, technical skills trainings, a solar-powered borehole and fencing material.

Within a short space of time, the farmers started appreciating farming as a business by establishing a consolidated horticulture garden with crops such as butternut, tomatoes, chomolia, a fruit tree orchard and a fruit tree seedling nursery.

In an interview, one of the group members Tsemukang Sebata, said the initiative had immensely transformed the lives of group members as they can now effortlessly cater for their household needs,” she said.

To date, Progressive Garden members enjoy financial benefits from different income avenues

Besides selling their products to local and external markets, the members also enjoy a nutritious diet with their families.

“We have supplied markets as far as Insiza District and our families now eat nutritional products from the horticulture garden,” Sebata said.

The garden has become the learning centre for many farmers within and outside Gwanda District.