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By Masimba Mukichi

As the campaign slogan for president Barack Obama went viral world wide – the urbanites of Harare are saying, “yes we can” to sack potato farming.

Residents of Mabvuku, Chitungwiza, Hopley and many other neighbouring suburbs have taken up sack potato farming as a money making project.They are earning a living through selling their potatoes to the readily available market in Harare – at the same time having some chips and roasted potatoes on their tables for their families at dinner times. This method of farming has its origins in Israel and the United States. Traditionally potatoes sold in Harare used to come from surrounding areas such as Domboshava, Goromonzi, and areas as far afield as Chiweshe and Bindura. The trend at the moment seems to favour the urbanites of Harare who had taken sack potato farming to greater heights using limited space and limited resources. Below is an attempt to explain what is meant by sack potato farming.

Put it simply sack potato farming is the growing of potatoes in sacks – this way of farming is suitable for people with limited land, it can be carried out at one’s balcony, patio and backyard garden. It is not labour intensives but it can yield a bumper harvest of potatoes as compared to the traditional way of growing potatoes on the ground – the sack potato method is believed to produce more potatoes per plant than the traditional method of growing potatoes. Each sack potato plant produces approximately 30kgs when harvested. This method is good at conserving the soil while people earn a living. It is an employment creation undertaking.

Under the sack potato growing scheme, the potatoes are planted in 25 to 50 kg bags filled with rich moist composite soil. There are two sources for the potatoes used for planting namely seeds and tubers – the later source is the most effective. A process known as “chitting” is used – this is the process of growing shoots on potato tubers prior to planting. The benefit of this method is that it produces faster growth and heavier potatoes than growing potatoes as seeds – the seed route takes a longer time before the crop is harvested than using tubers. For those who prefer potato seeds they are obtainable at EDDA seeds in Harare.

While I continue to marvel at the residents of Harare’s ingenuity and gritty which seem to be paying dividends and there seem to be no turning back on their effort to continue sack potato farming – it may also be of benefit if schools can adopt this method to teach children self-reliance skills through education with production lessons. Equally the same the kindergarten schools in rural areas may also adopt this method as way of growing their own potatoes to provide the so needed nutrients to the under 5-years nursery kids. The school levers too might give it a go whilst they wait to branch into professions of their choices – Indeed money comes from making one’s hands dirty through sack potato farming!

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