At only 21 years old, Mbuyeleli Zimba has dreams of helping communities realise and utilise the benefits of farming.
He is an international agriculture student at the Peritum Agri Institute, studying through the John Deere Advanced Operations training programme in Bloemfontein. Currently, he is studying both sectors of agriculture (crops and animal farming), thanks to his love for the field which bloomed during his matric year at Princess High School.
Zimba matriculated in 2019, the pilot year of Princess High’s garden project, which was started in hopes of assisting with the school’s feeding scheme by growing vegetables and distributing them to people and organisations in the community who needed them. Unfortunately, the lockdown regulations for most of 2020 led to the garden falling into disrepair, so in early March, Zimba returned to his former high school to help give new life to their vegetable garden.
Seeing he is a Princess High alumnus, teaching the new generation of learners how to grow their own food and maintain the garden at the school was very close to Zimba’s heart. On 19 March, he and a few of the school’s 2021 matric learners planted lettuce, carrots, green beans and spinach, which should be ready to harvest around the end of April. The vegetables will be distributed to old age homes, orphanages, and other non-profit and non-government organisations in the community. The goals for this project span far beyond feeding. Through the garden project, Zimba and Princess High School hope to educate the involved learners about nutrition, the reality of poverty, the importance of knowing how to be self-sustainable, and how beneficial growing food can be to climate change.
The passionate agriculture student is encouraging other schools to get involved and follow in Princess High School’s footsteps by starting their own gardens; projects he hopes to become personally involved in. “In the future, I want to implement and expand school farming,” he stated. Through this, he hopes to assist learners in finding their passions. A few of the Princess High learners involved in the project could be heard speaking about how interesting a career in agriculture could be, and how they hope to take their studies on the subject further after high school. “I want to see the students of Princess High School flourish,” Zimba continued.
In the future, he also hopes to recruit and upskill eligible farmers as a part of his community upliftment plans, which will see him work towards his goal of preserving nature and boosting the economy through training and registering small-scale farmers.
If you would like to get in contact with Zimba to find out how to start your own vegetable garden, or to help him realise his goals, he can be contacted on 072 974 3928 or by emailing 0009mzimba@gmail.com.
