Conservative Agriculture Training and Financial Stewardship Promotion Programme

44-year-old Tichaona lives with his wife and four children. With few opportunities to work in the community, Tichaona often smokes and drinks with friends and does not do the farming work at home, but enjoys the fruits of his family’s hard work.

On one occasion, Tichaona attended a training session at the church on conservation farming, farming land and family financial management in place of his wife, who was unable to attend, and it made an unexpected difference to Tichaona. The acceptance of Tichaona by the church congregants, and the assignment of tasks such as hosting the FfF trainers and informing the group about the training course, gave him a sense of belonging and responsibility to try to make a difference in his family’s life. These ideas motivated him to take an active role in learning and putting into practice the conservation farming skills and financial management principles he had learned during the course. Now that Tichaona has stopped borrowing money, he is using conservation farming methods to plant and manage his land well, and at harvest time, his farmland is producing more than ever! At the same time, Tichaona has started to raise chickens, producing eggs and chicken meat that provide enough nutrition for the family and can also be sold to increase the family’s income. Tichaona is now part of the training team, promoting and teaching conservation farming methods to her neighbours and helping FfF keep up with the trainees’ progress during the epidemic closure.

The change in Tichaona’s mindset and behaviour from being passive, scatterbrained and selfish to being active, hard-working and helpful; from having no expectations of the harvest to expecting a good one; and from lacking food to having more than enough food, has made a huge difference to his family.

FfF team still expects Tichaona to give up his smoking and drinking habits. Still, Tichaona’s example has also taught them that when helping the poor, it is important to follow the example of Jesus Christ and not just look at people’s weaknesses, but also see their potential.