BY BEAVEN DHLIWAYO
Group Features Editor
IN ZIMBABWE where aquatic foods are highly consumed, the rapidly growing aquaculture sector has the potential to improve the lives of all by contributing to enhanced livelihoods, food security, and household nutrition.
Yet, constraining gender norms and stereotypes are prevalent, hindering women’s full involvement in and benefits from aquaculture. In addition to being the backbone of rural economies, women make significant contributions to household food security and nutrition while being responsible for household and care duties.
The roles women engage in are most often strongly influenced by the social, cultural, and economic contexts in which they live and they often face gender-based constraints that hinder their agency, that is their ability to make choices and act on them, and prevent them from fully benefiting from their roles in the sector.
To address such inequalities, Afra Nhanhanga, through her company Afrason Aquaculture, vowed to empower women and girls in the male-dominated field. Nhanhanga, who is a successful fish farmer, is also a crop specialist at her 95ha Arden Farm in Buffalo Downs just outside the town of Karoi. She said her upbringing shaped her dreams that women deserve better and should be equally empowered as their male counterparts in any field of their choice.
“My mother was very enterprising and would grow crops like tomatoes, leafy vegetables, potatoes, and cereals like maize. Our house in the village was built using proceeds from a tomato project, which was something that motivated me to be hard working and to set myself targets from an early age,” said Nhanhanga. As the eldest child, Nhanhanga would take care of her siblings while both parents were busy fending for the family.
“My rural life shaped me into what I am today. We were brought up to have compassion for the next person, respect for every person, and above all, a sense of ownership for everything that involved family.
“My father had a pick-up truck that used to be hired by women going to buy fresh produce from Mbare and Lusaka fresh produce markets. I will accompany him on all his trips to the markets and would collect the transport fares from the women. This is the point at which I realised that there was a lot of money in agriculture, with everything in my life seeming to be anchored on revenue generated from farming,” admitted Nhanhanga.
She produces wheat, maize, cattle, and other small livestock units at Arden farm. “At the moment I am busy developing my fish project in 21 ponds. Some of them do not have fish yet, but am on course to stock them. Fish farming is a project that is not labour intensive once you establish the ponds,” she said.
Her fish project has since attracted the attention of Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) in a development that looks set to end one of her biggest challenges – shortages of feed. In an interview with the Daily News on Sunday, Dean of the School of Wildlife and Environmental Sciences at CUT, Professor Taurai Bere said they are partnering with Afrason Aquaculture to produce farm feed at the farm.
“We will be doing research trials of on-farm feed formulations using the black soldier fly. We will introduce at least 44 000 fingerlings into 16 ponds and see how the feeds perform. The programme is funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and once we have a breakthrough, that will mean fish farmers will not continue to face the feed shortages they are facing. We will be producing at a larger scale and even train other people to do it as well,” said Bere.
The research’s success will help improve access to feeds, which Nhanhanga says are part of her plans to start training other women, especially young school girls on fish farming.
“This will be an advantage for Zimbabwe as it will relieve fish farmers from the burden of importing feeds from neighbouring Zambia, which balloons the cost of production.
“I hope this development will encourage women and young girls to take up fish farming and boost production of the product that is always in short supply countrywide. “There is an abundant market for fish at the moment. I am encouraging youth and women to try it out and see how it goes. They will never be stuck with the product as consumers are waiting to take it up.
Alongside market development and increased supply of fish, I aim to enable increased women’s decision-making power and control over resources, like income derived from fish farming and marketing,” explained Nhanhanga. She said she is in the process of making the farm a tourist destination for schoolchildren so that they will see the benefits of fish farming.
“Let’s catch them young so that we have future fish farmers. Traditionally, school children embark on trips for fun around the country’s natural sites. Now we are saying why not visit Afrason Aquaculture and get real insights into fish farming? We will show them how it is done and hopefully, they will become fish farmers in the future.
“We want to do away with the culture of going to school so that one gets employed. Let’s teach them to be employers of tomorrow. I always go with my kids and they know the importance of fish farming and the benefits one gets.
“I am willing to support women entrepreneurs through accelerator programmes and establishing women fish-farming groups (producer groups) that are registered with the government,” added Nhanhanga. Nhanhanga’s farming activities have not only helped her, but a host of other Zimbabweans whom she has employed. Her illustrious career and the zeal to give back to the community have since earned her ac[1]knowledgment both locally and globally. She now sits on several humanitarian boards.
At a personal level, Nhanhanga said she takes care of many disadvantaged children. Her philanthropy work has also seen her working closely with inmates at Karoi Prison in Mashonaland West province. For these exploits, Nhanhanga has won awards several awards that include, Megafest 2022 Outstanding Business Woman of the Year Award, the United Nations Global Leadership Award Outstanding Woman Chief Executive Officer of the Year Gold Award at the Megafest Women Leadership Awards, Outstanding Global Peace Ambassador for Change and the 50 Visionary and Inspiration Women Award, among many other awards.
Additionally, the University of South Africa (UNISA) also bequeathed her with an honorary entrepreneurship degree, a clear show of how her work has positively impacted mankind. She was also bestowed with a doctor of philosophy degree by America’s Trinity University of Ambassadors for her contribution to Zimbabwe’s business sector.