As farmers in Zimbabwe seek to make the best of their horticulture projects, some are setting up greenhouses on their small plots.

With protection against the hot sun, hard rain, and frost, they can set up their own nurseries and create extra incomes as they also sell seedlings to other farmers and residents.

For many here, farming is already a tough proposition despite government availing land for free. Infrastructure has been cited as a major drawback in attempts to make the sector profitable with land remaining fallow, resulting in government repossessing the land.

But for some urban and peri-urban farmers, determination to make the best of their self-funded projects has meant looking beyond the everyday setbacks.

Jeffery Gumpo, a subsistence farmer, owns a small plot in Douglasdale on the outskirts of Bulawayo. For the past few years, he has been the go-to-guy for vegetables in his neighbourhood after he turned his land into a thriving market gardening project.

While he propagated some of his own vegetables, such as the leafy chomolia (kale), by pruning and replanting, he still bought seedlings, and this cost him both money and time.

It was also labour intensive, he says.

“Last year I decided I could set up my own small greenhouse to grow seedlings for myself. So far, it is not bad,” said Jeffery Gumpo who set up the greenhouse himself with labour assistance from neighbourhood colleagues.

Now the project is growing itself as he sells the seedlings to other people who grow greens for their own domestic consumption. Besides growing for resale, his main interest is growing tomatoes in the greenhouse.

“Tomatoes can be a headache with weather changes. Frost is their worst enemy, but with the greenhouse, I know the crop is safe,” he said.

Greenhouses enable farmers to control the growing environment for their crops ensuring minimal crop losses and maximising production.

Across town, at a formerly low-density suburb historically known for vibrant farming plots, Harris Batsirai runs a small agriculture project.

In that area, farming activities slowed over the years with changes in ownership, but Harris is from a generation of ambitious young farmers determined to create profitable green spaces.

He says he realised that setting up a greenhouse helps cushion him against losses as agriculture is a sensitive business.

“It is easy to lose your crop just when you are thinking of harvesting,” Harris said.

His comments come against a background of radical climate changes that have shifted traditional cropping cycles, with local meteorological services regularly warning farmers about changing weather patterns.

“I was advised at a farmer training workshop that greenhouses can be quite handy if you want to stay in business,” he said.

He set up the greenhouse this year and grows a variety of crops including tomatoes and onions, which he says cannot be planted all year round.

There is a demand for vegetables right through the year, but growing them tend to be seasonal. “Unless you have the infrastructure, you cannot grow them anytime of the year,” Harris added.

The greenhouse has changed how he does business.

Set up from simple material that includes straps of timber and plastic without the technical complications of professionally constructed greenhouses, Harris has been able to redirect his efforts to ensure he has enough water.

“It would be futile to have a greenhouse but not enough access to water. So, I have worked with some guys to connect water from the borehole to feed the greenhouse plants,” Harris said.

Greenhouses have been praised by experts for their ability to maximise yields within limited space, and for farmers such as Jeffery and Harris working within the city limits, such self-created infrastructure is creating new opportunities.

Produce from greenhouses is also considered high quality, and looking at it commercially, produce can even be exported.

However, most small-scale farmers who have set up greenhouses for themselves are not looking that far.

“I am happy that the greenhouse ensures that I continue working without obsessing about losses. I still have other crops outside the greenhouse, but I know that for now things are manageable,” said Harris.

The Zimbabwe government is increasingly encouraging young farmers who are willing to take up new innovations as part of efforts to move away from the old ways of doing business.

With involvement in the sector being drawn back by lack of agro-finance and the unwillingness of local banks to give loans to farmers, it has been left to individual farmers to make the best of their passion for food production.