WITH many rural youths suffering from high levels of unemployment, a Marondera-based agro-company Rollex Pvt (Ltd) in partnership with the Zimbabwe Youth Council (ZYC), recently embarked on a mission to empower youths in Mutoko by providing them with horticulture inputs.
Own Correspondent
The youths, most of who are currently in fine bean production, among other horticultural crops, have a ready market in Europe for fresh vegetables, courtesy of Rollex, a well-known vegetable exporter company in the country.
In an interview with some of the youths during a media tour of Mutoko organised by the ZYC Mashonaland East province, they all hailed the projects saying these will go a long way in changing their lives. “The project is moving on well and the production of fine beans is indeed set to benefit us a lot.
I am grateful to the authorities who came up with the idea of partnering youths from this area through giving them ideas, inputs and market for their products.
“All along, we have been living in darkness, not knowing how our future would be, but Rollex in partnership with ZYC has brought back smiles on our faces and very soon we will be earning thousands of dollars after exporting our farm produce,” said 23-year old Allen Machaya from Tabudirira Village, Mutoko.
Machaya is one of the beneficiaries of the project that will spread to other parts of Mashonaland East.
He owns a quarter hectare of fine beans that will be ready for harvesting in a month’s time.
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Vaida Sori (31) from Hoyuyu Village in Mutoko, who leads seven other youths in fine beans production saluted the coming on board of Rollex and ZYC to rescue the them from abject poverty.
“We are eight youths on this project and we are working hard so that we won’t lose this opportunity that I can say came on a silver platter.
“We received free inputs from Rollex and they are also going to provide a ready market for us. This is indeed a turning point for our lives and we are very grateful that we can now have something to work on for the betterment of our lives.
“We will be farming all year round and apart from fine beans we are going to diversify into vegetable production as we grow big,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sori and her team are manually irrigating the piece of land using water from the nearby dam.
“We do not have irrigation equipment for now and we use our containers to water the plants twice a week,’ she said.
Edwin Moyo, the chief executive officer of Rollex said the company is mandated to help unemployed youths through farming.
“I am very happy to note that Rollex is facilitating this programme whereby unemployed youths are given free inputs to help them in horticultural activities.
“We have started the programme in Mutoko after realising that rural youths are suffering besides the fact that they have vast tracks of land. We offered seed, expertise and others inputs especially on fine bean production.
“This is easy for them as we also provide a ready market for them. Rollex is a well-known exporter of veggitables to Europe and this means their produce is needed somewhere else.
“Currently, we are mobilising funds to construct a refrigerated room in Mutoko so that the youths will have storage facilities for their green produces,” he said.
ZYC Mashonaland East representative Phillip Sewera hailed Rollex for empowering the youths.
“We are very privileged to have Rollex on board and we really appreciate what they are doing to engage youths from this province in farming.
Unemployment rate is high not only in Mashonaland East, but accross the country and we hope these projects will do much in curbing the problem.
“In Mutoko we looked for an A2 farmer and asked him to accommodate some youths and let them do the project. Fortunately, some of the youths have access to land and it was easy for us to have the main input, land.
“Moreover, the youths are acquiring various farming techniques that will help them and others. As ZYC we are working on engaging other companies to help create jobs for the youths in our province,” he said.
