From trying their hands in sectors as diverse as rabbit farming to mushroom growing, young emerging farmers in Zimbabwe are giving it a go.

And why not in a country where formal employment opportunities are scarce.

College and university graduates are shoving their certificates out of sight to pursue hands-on farming. And they are learning a valuable lesson: the dirtier the hands, the more satisfying and rewarding the job.

Others however have spotted a different opening to keep the smallholder farmers going.

Young Robert Sigauke never imagined he would totally put out of his mind the education he received in college.

He obtained an architecture diploma, but as soon as he graduated, he realised that the four years he had spent in college could have been a waste.

“You only realise your true calling after having spent years doing the same repetitive thing,” said Sigauke who now crosses the border into South Africa to purchase agro-products for resale in the city.

Do you want injections and accompanying medicines, antibiotics for your livestock? Sigauke is your man.

Do you want to be connected to South African boer goat sellers? Sigauke is your go-to-guy.

By his own telling, he got involved in the agro-industry services by fluke.

“I was going to South Africa during Covid-19 restrictions, and a friend asked me to bring him medicines for his pigs. I was already acquainted with cross-border traders and one of them actually said to me do you know there is money in these things?,” Sigauke said.

And that was the beginning of a small agro-supplies operation that made him quickly forget all his college education.

Sigauke is one of an emerging group of young entrepreneurs who have unearthed a lucrative market supplying farmers across a range of sectors with affordable imported goods.

Working exclusively on social media platforms, Sigauke has built a steady clientele he admits he never knew existed.

“You will be surprised by the number of orders I get from especially young farmers who are abreast with the needs of professional commercial farming,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s shops are notorious for prices that are beyond the reach of many, and this has meant that for sectors such as farming, industry players make do without critical inputs.

“You can get items such as pesticides, fertilisers, and livestock medicine in neighbouring South Africa for up to a third less than what you pay in our local shops,” Sigauke said.

While farmers have always clamoured for the government to subsidise the sector, international monetary institutions have for years discouraged the practice saying government could not afford to use public funds.

Yet for entrepreneurs such as Sigauke, this situation has opened a window of opportunity to tap into a loophole that existed for years.

“If I had known earlier, I would have embarked on this years ago. Now I realise that I do not need a formal job. I am self-employed and this is a very rewarding full-time job. Demand is all year round as people are always planting one crop or another and rearing livestock,” he added.

In a country where poultry farming among young people is big business, Sigauke is never without orders to bring medicines to treat the chickens that are always threatened by one disease or another, he says.

Like many “hustlers” in Zimbabwe, Sigauke works with veterinarians who work with local farmers, ensuring he is getting everything right.

“The veterinarians know their stuff. They write down what they know their clients want, or the clients get these prescriptions from the veterinarians so it is a win-win situation,” he said.

It is those relations that are driving the country’s budding young farmers who would otherwise not have afforded to purchase much required inputs for their operations locally.

In August this year, one of the country’s major industrial chemicals manufacturers announced it was increasing the production of animal health care products as part of efforts to reduce imports.

It was yet another example of how critical sectors have struggled to boost the agriculture sector that government is aiming to turn into a billion-dollar industry.

The agriculture chemicals sector has, along with many others, suffered the effects of a volatile local currency, failing to secure critical raw materials, effectively creating opportunities for young entrepreneurs such as Sigauke.

But it will be long before Sigauke is pushed out of business as the country’s economic turmoil shows no sign of letting up, with the agriculture sector not being spared.