Garden turned into gold mine #namibia

Between Divundu and Popa village is a place where Kapata
Medosa has established a garden with a variety of
vegetables. Not having a job spurred the 36-year-old
Ndongo villager in Kavango East to venture into vegetable
gardening.
For many years now Kapata has been a dedicated vegetable
farmer.
Speaking to New Era, Kapata said he started planting
vegetables in his backyard in 2007 to make a living and
stopped in 2011 to seek employment in the south of the
country.
But he ended up working in a grape plantation which
according to him was not worth the distance from home.
"After two years I decided to come back to continue with my
own gardening and be close to my family," he narrated.
Kapata is the sole breadwinner for five of his offspring and
he also has to provide for other extended family members at
Ndongo village.
"I provide for my family and decided to have a garden
because I never made it in school and employment is hard
to find for a guy who only went up to Grade 9 like me. That
is the main reason why many young people are unemployed
because they never excelled in school or they just didn't
finish school," he said as a matter of fact.
Since the garden is on a fertile piece of land on the banks of
the Kavango River, water is always available for his crops.
Kapata mainly plants cabbages, tomatoes, onions and other
veggies which he sells to the local community and prices
differ. Cabbages are sold according to size but he insists
his prices are reasonable considering people in Ndongo are
not high earners while others don't earn a regular monthly
income.
"Some people come to buy veggies in bulk to go resell
elsewhere for a profit. I am slowly able to sustain my family
and my garden business is better than just sitting idle at
home," he said.
In summer he opts to plant summer crops but mainly maize,
and despite being close to the river the only setback is
hippos that graze at night and often devour his veggies and
at times they just trample his crops on their way to the
river. Because of this challenge Kapata was compelled to
erect a fence around his vegetable garden to protect his
garden from hippos.
Kapata said he wants local business people to sell different
seeds that he together with others could use to plant more
veggies.
"I also want to be part of the green scheme project one day
and be trained to be a small-scale farmer. But for now this
is my only way of making a decent honest living," says
Kapata.