Tsungai Champion
Mary Chitsa, from Chikara Village Ward 13, is a spirited 31-year-old lead farmer, who is celebrating her successes she attained through Tsungai Project. The past few years had been challenging, especially with the erratic rains, the harvest pattern for the past 3 years was meagre to none.
The recent 2024/2025 farming season fortunes coincided with seed aid they received from Tsungai and the averagely good rains, although they once experienced a dry spell.
The sorghum, pearl millet seeds they received had proven to be resilient, highlighting that the seeds they got from Tsungai were good and gave a good yield as compared to them using over recycled seeds she counts to 3 years and beyond.
Mary Chitsa showing off her training notes she used throughout the farming season and bags amounting to 275kgs of pearl millet she harvested.
Mary always kept a notebook close at hand, filled with notes from training sessions and her own observations. As a lead farmer each page of the notes they took during trainings was a reminder of the strategies that had helped her family and community of farmers thrive. The catchy affirmation she learnt are, “there’s a time to harvest,” emphasizing the need for patience and timing in their agricultural practices. She highlighted the valuable lessons she learnt and is still learning through Tsungai.
Attributing to agricultural techniques they were trained Mary harvested 16 and a half buckets of pearl millet and estimates the family will harvest 10 buckets of sorghum although the peanuts did not do well, she is expecting a lesser harvest but at least a bucket. The exciting this harvesting season is, “Now we can afford three meals a day, including snacks!” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with joy. This was a significant improvement from their previous meals, which had often consisted of just two sparse servings.
Further to this, Mary learnt through Tsungai not to sell field produce before being certain that as a household they are food secure. Being wary of unscrupulous traders who trade mainly small grains with clothes, soap, stationery or other requested assumed luxuries, which is a common practice in their area which makes farmers start looking for food aid just after harvesting.
In addition to her agricultural efforts, Mary had also embraced the principles of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene which are access to clean water, proper sanitation facilities, and promoting hygiene practices, she looks forward to upgrading her sanitation standards as she learnt through triggering sessions. With a proper toilet, which she feels she needs to extend it as it is overwhelmed by the size of her household and a well-organized dish rack, she still realised she lacks other sanitation essentials such as a hand washing facility after toilet use. “Mary invested in soap and hygiene products, understanding their importance in maintaining health especially at her homestead which has 25 permanently resident people.
As a Lead Farmer, Mary has vowed to lead by example in all the project’s interventions and be a proud brand ambassador of Tsungai Project in her community. She is grateful for Tsungai as it has brought knowledge and how to do better in the next season of planting crops. She remarkably concluded her experiences saying, “If it were not for Tsungai I would have just aimlessly plant crops for the sake of it, not valuing what it means to be a farmer.”
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