Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
AT Anju Farm Prison, inmates are full of life and visibly healthy.

Unlike at other prisons where food can be a challenge, here inmates eat what comes from their labour.

The first sight when entering Anju farm prison are various kinds of refreshing vegetables, carrots and onions. Grazing on the other side of the farm are cattle.

A number of inmates clad in their uniforms are at work and new skills are learnt that one can use to pick up the pieces once out of jail.

Inmates are seen busy at the farm with prison officers giving a hand and guiding them on what to do. Inside the prison farm the first attraction is a sight of green cabbages; at the moment there are 30 000 heads.

All those details are kept by both the officers and the inmates who use their time at the farm to learn the ropes about farming.

Sprinklers irrigate water melons that will be in the market just in time for the festive season. A head of cattle is being monitored by prisoners on the other side of the farm.

ZPCS Anju Farm officers and inmates work on a cabbage crop at the farm

Onions and other various kinds of vegetables are ready for the market on some parts of the farm while preparation for the rain fed maize planting season is underway on another part of the farm.

This is the farm that supplies all prisons in Matabeleland North Province with food, while some produce finds its way into the homes of Bulawayo residents.

This time around, vegetables are being dried due to surplus.

The senior manager of Anju Farm prison Assistant Principal Correction Officer Edias Masendeke said the farm is the mainstay of the province in terms of food supply in the prisons.

“We have green vegetables, cabbages, onions, carrots and for post-winter we have a hectare of water melons, three hectares of butternut. We are clearing land for summer maize using rainfall water,” he said.

Asst Principal Correction Officer Masendeke said they are in the process of transforming the farm to drip irrigation.

“We have a lot of water underground, but when we use sprinklers to irrigate, we waste a lot of water. We are in the process of making plans to move to drip irrigation so that we maximise on the land that we have and increase crop production,” he said.

Asst Principal Correction Officer Masendeke said this year they did not plant winter wheat as they wanted to maximise on vegetable farming so that they can also supply other prisons outside the Matabeleland region. He said cable thieves almost put their plans into disarray after they stole Zesa cables resulting in failure to get water two weeks ago.

“We spent two weeks without watering our plants and it really affected us. As you can see, our cabbage is at a stage where it needs water. Some of our plants were germinating, we hope to salvage much of the vegetables despite the setback,” he said.

The farm manager said their biggest problem this year has been finding a market for their products due to Covid-19.

“Covid-19 affected us greatly as you can see, we have so much vegetables that we should have sold long back but we could not. We have decided to dry them so that we cover ourselves during the rainy reason when planting vegetables becomes a problem because of water logging,” he said.

“Without Covid-19, we could have sold these vegetables long back, but because business times were adjusted and the movement of people was curtailed, we could not sell our products like we used to do.”

Currently, the farm boasts of one hectare each of tsunga, rape, cabbages and 1,5 hectares of onions.

He said the prisoners at the farm are spoilt for choice as they have a lot of varieties to choose from in terms of relish.