More yield, less field
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This year Zimbabwe has had a bumper crop of the staple food, maize. It is only the second time in two decades that it has grown enough food for the whole population. Last year they barely had half of what was needed and 7.7 million people went hungry. Better rainfall is largely to thank, but a new farming technique, called Pfumvudza is also being celebrated as having a dramatic impact on the amount Zimbabwe’s smallholder farmers have produced, increasing their yields up to four times. Dr Matthew Mbanga is CEO of the organisation which designed Pfumvudza explains the “more yield, less field” principle, which encourages farmers to more intensively cultivate a smaller area of land.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I was at university in the States and playing rugby for Texas and all of that. |
| 0:08.0 | I had a drunken motorcycle accident and a hundred miles an hour with no helmet. |
| 0:12.0 | I was in a coma for five days and spent the next nine months in a wheelchair and |
| 0:17.0 | ended my rugby career and ended my life. |
| 0:19.0 | My whole identity was wrapped up in that and I knew that I could never be that again. |
| 0:26.0 | And so as I kind of grappled for meaning in my life, for some reason there was just a stirring. |
| 0:31.0 | I wasn't a Christian, I wasn't a dending church, I had no intention of being a nice guy or being a goody two shoes, |
| 0:38.0 | but I hungered for meaning in my life. |
| 0:46.0 | So I came back to Zimbabwe, I attended a foundation for farming training course. |
| 0:50.0 | And I just woke up the next morning saying this is the answer. This is it. |
| 0:56.0 | This will transform Zimbabwe, this will transform Africa. |
| 1:01.0 | My wife and I met shortly after that conference and moved out to a rural area and started living off the land and practicing this. |
| 1:08.0 | And Charlotte had worked. We could feed ourselves, we could live. |
| 1:13.0 | From Fudza is based in science, obviously the motivation for us is faith, but the reality is that the package it works. |
| 1:25.0 | This is the highest yield that we've achieved in Zimbabwe in 37 years. I mean that's a big deal. |
| 1:33.0 | We're agronomists, we're farmers, we know that it works, the proof is there. |
| 1:37.0 | Climate change is here to stay, it's with us, it's our reality. |
| 1:40.0 | And we've experienced that and how many more people have to die of starvation for us to say we've got to change how we're doing things. |
| 1:46.0 | Give us your strength and your power today we pray, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. |
| 1:52.0 | Right, team one, three, one, two, three, team! Have a good one guys. |
| 2:03.0 | You're listening to More Yield Lessfield on BBC World Service with me, Dr Matthew and Bunger. |
| 2:08.0 | I'm the CEO of an organisation called Foundations for Farming, here in Herari's in Bubwe. |
... |
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