More than 1,500 households in the semi-arid Mwenezi and Chiredzi districts in southern Masvingo have been brought into a program to boost incomes by a non-governmental organization spearheading paprika farming, with a processing plant accelerating development of Rutenga into a town.
Sustainable Agriculture Technology (SAT) is a community driven NGO that operates in Mwenezi and Chiredzi, with the aim of eradicating poverty. Prior to the paprika farming, the organization was involved in a joint cattle-feed grass growing project near Mwenezi River using irrigation water from Manyuchi Dam.
The organization now wants to assist communities in Mwenezi and Rutenga to grow paprika for a processing plant being built at Rutenga growth point. The processing plant will be the third processing industry at Rutenga, as the small town develops fast into a burgeoning processing and value-addition hub in southern Masvingo.
Source: herald.co.zw