Dr Matthew Mbanga from Zimbabwe was one of the speakers at the ninth World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. He participated in a panel discussion on the challenges that small-scale farmers face.
This award-winning farmer got involved in a national project in 2021 that empowered 1.8 million small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe, which made 9 million Zimbabweans food secure. Mbanga, CEO of Foundations for Farming, received the Food and Agriculture Organization partnership award in 2022 in Rome.
“The way we achieved that was not by going bigger, but going smaller, matching the size of the field with the management capabilities of the farmer. On a sixteenth of a hectare per farmer we managed to feed the nation for the first time,” Mbanga said.
“We don’t need mechanisation; we need the dignity and self-determination to return to the land.”
Mbanga, taught in a private school in Zimbabwe, obtained an MBA and doctorate degree in Texas, had a serious motorcycle accident. “After five days in a coma, five months on my stomach and nine months in a wheelchair, I lost my sense of self and way of the world.
“I had a yearning to serve small-scale farmers and do something meaningful with my life. After searching for the meaning of life in America, I found a deep sense of purpose in rural Africa.”
Watch his presentation below.
