53-year-old Grace Taruvinga has managed to turn her backyard garden into a lucrative enterprise, thanks to Hand in Hand Zimbabwe(HiHZim).

The Hand in Hand Zimbabwe business modular trainings equipped her with an entrepreneurial mindset which helped her to set up a horticultural garden.

She grows chomolia, pumpkin, maize, beans, sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes and fruit trees.

Narrating her story, Grace indicated that the backyard garden needed low capital investment and the demand for green vegetables motivated her to run the enterprise.

“Before joining Hand in Hand Zimbabwe, produce from my backyard garden was solely for household consumption but through the organisation’s trainings, I identified a business opportunity.”

Grace uses networking as her key marketing strategy and apart from selling to the local community, she supplies two clients from Plumtree town and Bhangani Business Centre respectively.

The garden produces 40 bundles of chomolia,10 bundles tsunga and rape per month and she sales fortnightly.

Her cropping calendar was inspired by her clientele who specify the products they need.

“Networking with your clients helps you work towards maintaining quality because of the customer feedback. Understanding the needs of the community, also helps you to plan your enterprise successful,” she said.

The enterprising woman gets an average monthly income of ZAR800 from her business. She has managed to buy gardening equipment and to support her family.