By Blessing Muchineripi.

Aparia Chikobvu (67) lives in Watch Village, Ward 10, Gutu District, under Chief Chitsa with her 2 children and 2 grandchildren. Aparia has been using bokashi organic fertilisers to sustain her agricultural activities for the past four years. She says bokashi has helped her sustainably grow healthier food for her family. 

“I was introduced to bokashi making by Kumikidzai Diza, our ward AGRITEX [Agricultural Technical Extension] officer, who invited me to Chinyika Community Development Trust (CCDT) in 2019 where I got a first-hand demonstration of making and using bokashi,” says Aparia.  

Kumikidzai Diza (42), the Gutu Ward 10 AGRITEX Officer says she has been training small scale farmers in her community to use bokashi rather than synthetic fertilisers because bokashi-produced food has more benefits.

“We have been training smallholder farmers like Aparia to use organic fertilisers which improve soil health. Food grown from organic fertilisers tend to be healthier and more nutritious,” says Kumikidzai 

Aparia says using bokashi has brought about notable improvement in her food and income security.

“Since I started using bokashi, my harvests have improved because of improved soil fertility in my crop fields. Bokashi is also affordable in comparison to synthetic chemical fertilisers because it is made using organic and locally available inputs,” she says. 

David Zivanai (52) another farmer from Jokoro village, also under Chief Chitsa, says farmers are now coming together to produce more bokashi, with future plans to mass produce it for retail.

“More people are opening up to using bokashi. Our plan as a consortium of farmers is to produce more of this organic fertiliser so that we can sell it for others to benefit,” he says. 

“The end result will be more organic fertiliser being sold to farmers not only in Gutu but countrywide,” adds Aparia.