Model farmer leading the change in more than just farming
Challenging gender norms by providing equal opportunities for both men and women.
Calista had to get used to this new role as lead farmer. She was not accustomed to being part of the community and talking to a lot of people, but now teaching others has made her more confident. ©FAO
When Calista Maguramhinga shows visitors a section of her half-hectare farm, she keeps a small notebook clutched in her hands with details of how she is growing her food.
On her farm, the maize plants are tall with green leaves and chunky cobs nearly ready to harvest. She points to one section: “Maize variety 633,” she says. “Plot prepared with tine ripper plow, planted 20 December with organic compost; fertilizer applied on 3 January and again on 20 January.”
Recruited to serve as a volunteer “lead farmer”, Calista helps train others in her village, a place called Muzenge in the Manicaland province of Zimbabwe. She has a number of demonstration plots for maize, sorghum and grounds nuts where she is testing new farming approaches. Local farmers come to learn from what she is doing.
Calista is one of many smallholder farmers getting their training from the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP), managed by FAO and being implemented by a consortium of partners. Practical Action, Sustainable Agriculture Technology and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics are the implementing partners in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Province. The initiative is designed to not only help farming families improve their agricultural production, but also to improve their diets and reduce malnutrition, especially in families with young children.