News from PELUM Zimbabwe

Setting up nutrition gardens
PELUM Zimbabwe has helped to establish 11 nutrition gardens, as part of the first phases of a nutrition garden programme it is running with the Ministry of Health & Child Welfare which is trying to improve the health of people with TB, HIV and AIDS.

The project provides a garden group with all they need to start a nutrition garden: fencing material; seed starter packs; tools; and training on organic principles of growing vegetables and improving water argumentation supplies to reduce labour of watering by beneficiaries.

Communities contribute by providing labour, building materials such as river sand, pit sand, bricks, water and other locally available resources. To improve on the sustainability of the gardens, they form garden committees to manage the gardens.

The project focuses on promoting indigenous vegetables like Amaranthus (Mowa), Spider Plant (Nyevhe Ulude), Black Jack (tsine) and pumpkin leaves, which have very high vitamin and iron content

The project also provides periodic counselling on diet, herbs and garden tools and has a water supply component with focus on technologies that minimise labour during watering of gardens.

The project will finish at the end of 2010.

Promoting local foods

PELUM Zimbabwe participated in the Processed Products Fair in June 2010.

PELUM Zimbabwe Country Desk and member organization Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Management Trust (CELUCT) participated and exhibited processed products. CELUCT exhibited bottled honey and peanut butter from the farmers and the country desk exhibited packaged ingredients of a local snack – called Mutakura in one of the local languages – which is a combination of either groundnuts/roundnuts or maize/groundnuts or maize/roundnuts.

About PELUM Zimbabwe

PELUM Zimbabwe is a network of 28 member organisations that come together to facilitate learning, networking and advocacy in sustainable agriculture, natural resource management and household food security and its Country Desk that serves the members. The member organizations strive towards reducing poverty by focusing on sustainable local community livelihoods and empowerment of smallholder farmers. The country desk coordinates joint programmes, facilitates networking for the members and enhances the capacities of member organizations so that they are able to provide relevant quality services to smallholder farmers taking into account gender and HIV and AIDs issues.

PELUM enhance the capacity of smallholder farmers to speak for themselves in challenging systems and structures that have a bearing on their well-being. PELUM uses and develops participatory approaches to development.

Strategic Plan

As noted in its strategic plan (pdf 657K), its current objectives are:

• Capacity Building in Organizational and Institutional Development: To build the capacity of PELUM Zimbabwe (PZ) in improved leadership skills, Communication tools, and having the human resources and equipment in place for effective and efficient delivery of the PZ programme.
• Communication and Information development: To establish and ensure functioning of Information Communication Centres for Smallholder farmers.
• Training in Ecological Land Use Management: To resuscitate and ensure functioning of PELUM College Zimbabwe and offer short and longterm training in Ecological Land Use Management.
• Food Security and Marketing: To provide training and demonstration in Sustainable Agriculture and facilitate linking smallholder farmers to markets.
• Climate Change Adaptation: To train smallholder farmers on preparing and mitigation of disasters caused by frequent and severe floods and droughts.
• Policy and Advocacy: To lobby and advocate for an enabling environment or formulation and implementation of policies that affect Smallholder farmer’s e.g on Genetically Modified Organisms, Low External Input Agriculture, Biofuels, Trade Agreements etc.
• Fundraising: To enhance fundraising skills for PZ and improve the production capacity of the smallholder farmers

Contact details

Augustine Mubambi, country coordinator
PELUM Zimbabwe
PO Box CY 1496, Education Services Centre Building, 1st Floor, Upper East Road, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
Phone 263-4-2916499, 720738,
Fax 263-4-2916500,
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