Visit the Farms of Siphiwe and Pedro in Gokwe North, Zimbabwe!

on March 23, 2023

Real, sustainable solutions to end hunger do exist. In Gokwe North, Zimbabwe, Rise Against Hunger and ADRA International have been working with local communities to support long-term food security, school attendance and economic growth through the Planting Seeds for Strong Communities project.The project worked with community members, school leaders and local farmers to develop a home-grown school feeding program for five local schools and increase crop yields throughout the community. Farmers received farmer market and climate-smart agricultural training as well as access to grain shelling and oil pressing equipment. Today we’re sharing the stories of two of these farmers — Siphiwe and Pedro. As participants in the project, both have increased their crop yields and are supporting their families.

Siphiwe, a farmer and mother in Gokwe North, Zimbabwe

As a wife and mother, Siphiwe’s family is very important to her and, by selling cooking oil pressed from her sunflower crops, she has been adding to her family’s household income and improving their quality of living. Siphiwe and her husband used to exclusively grow cotton on their farm. But after the cotton market collapsed, they expanded their crops to include sunflowers, a focus crop of the Planting Seeds for Strong Communities project. Siphiwe has since seen an influx of income opportunities. Through the project, she learned how to convert the sunflower crops into cooking oil using an oil-pressing machine in her community. “I farm my sunflowers on half an acre, and this year I managed to get 32 buckets of sunflowers,” she said.Siphiwe sells the cooking oil and other sunflower plant by-products to the community. With the income, she can now cover her children’s school tuition fees where they receive nutritious, locally sourced meals. She’s empowering other women in her community, too. Watch the video below to hear more about Siphiwe’s resilience and commitment to her family.

Pedro, a farmer in Gokwe North, Zimbabwe

Like many farmers in the Gokwe North region of Zimbabwe, Pedro has faced reduced crop yields due to persistent droughts. This led to food insecurity and challenges in feeding his family of six. Through the Planting Seeds for Strong Communities project, he learned about Zai pits, a farming technique where pits are dug and filled with organic materials to improve soil nutrients, rehabilitate dry soils and retain more water. Since he began using the Zai pit farming method, his crop yields have increased and he’s become a lead farmer in his community. Other farmers have started visiting his farm to learn from him. He’s using his harvest to provide meals for his family, the local primary school and the community. In the video below, hear from Pedro firsthand about how the initiative has changed lives in his community. You can also learn more about the Zai pit farming method he uses here. Pedro and Siphiwe are helping to build resilience toward long-term food security in their communities. And they are just two of the 3,000 farmers supported through our Planting Seeds for Strong Communities project. To support the work to end food insecurity and build resilience in global communities around the world, donate today.

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.