VegEgg Basket (Horticulture & Poultry & Piggery – Rural Based Entrepreneurship)

VegEgg Basket is a new rural-based farming enterprise in Africa that is currently at the start-up phase. VegEgg Basket has 5 partners (1 male and 4 females).

VegEgg Basket's focus is on market gardening (horticulture), poultry and piggery enterprise in rural Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe. The aim of the project is to produce Vegetables, Table Eggs, Broilers and Pigs.

The land under development (13 hectares) is family owned communal land located in a very impoverished area about 80km from the nearest town but only 30km from the nearest Growth Point. Poultry and Piggery will use about 2.5 hectares and the rest of the land will be used to grow maize, soybean and sunflower to supplement our stock-feed. The enterprise targets to employ 10 people in the first year, increasing to about 75 full-time workers in 5 years time. We estimate that over 100 part-time workers will be required seasonally, to assist with weeding and harvesting of crops. Our 3 year business plan is to have 5 hectares of land under drip irrigation, raise 300+ broilers in 6 weeks cycles, have 20000+ layers chickens (in state of the art layers chicken coops) and 100+ pigs.

The enterprise will not only provide employment to the local people, but also skills development in horticulture, drip-irrigation, plastic-culture (weed control and moisture retention techniques), Poultry - layers chickens and broilers rearing, piggery, marketing and other on the job training. We have already identified 12 local youths who will be sent to different organizations for training in the 3 main areas of focus (Horticulture, Poultry & Piggery). This training should commence as soon as funds are secured to pay for the 2 - 3 weeks hands on training for the local youths.

Our area is quite remote and a bit under-developed, and we need to develop it so that we are also recognized on the world map. Currently there is no safe drinking water sources - community members fetch drinking water from shallow wells dug in river-beds. The one borehole within a 5km radius broke down more than 8 years ago and has never been fixed. However, there is plenty of land which can be put to good use the benefit of the local community and nation at large. The funds I am looking for will go into the drilling of a borehole, as the starting point, and the set-up of the horticulture phase. The partners have agreed to pull together some resources to fund the fencing of the fields, purchase of seed and fertilizers so as to get the project underway.

The development of this VegEgg Basket Enterprise will also ensure that nutritious foods (vegetables and poultry meat and eggs, & pork) are readily available to the local community at affordable prices.

We need funding to make this project a success. It is not going to be a success just for me and my partners in this venture, but a success for the local community members, a success for our province of Mashonaland West, a success for Zimbabwe agriculture and a success for Africa