•  $13,000 idle cash
• Fertilizer not needed
• No sweating, no tilling, the plough not needed
• Ordinary Zimbos can now become millionaires 
• Prosperity Gospel not needed in Africa

There are billions of dollars lying flat on top of Zimbabwe’s soils, ZimEye can reveal. Farming philanthropist and Zimbabwean scientific innovator Brian Oldrieve proves beyond doubt the lowest unschooled citizen can have bumper harvests from nowhere and stack annual  savings of at least $13,000 idle cash.
The average Zimbabwean can make a cash yield 400% more from the soil better than the average commercial farmer without any tilling whatsoever, while altogether avoiding expensives like fertilizer.
Under this method the most inexperienced Zimbabwean farmer with the smallest plot of a few acres can have annual  savings of $13,000 idle cash meaning no one in the whole country will be left poor.
 
 
Ordinary Zimbos can now become millionaires 
ZimEye.com can reveal that government is squandering hundreds of thousands of dollars buying fertilizer and other expensive implements to dish out to land reform beneficiaries at a time Oldrieve’s method proves none of that is necessary. Oldrieve’s innovation which has to date been bought into by more than 29 countries of the world, is the most effortless farming technique on earth and yet produces up to 400% in produce. Also dubbed ‘Zero Tillage’, the farmer’s innovation is a sure cost-effective approach which has seen some farmers getting 16 tonnes per hectare maize yields. The average commercial farmer produces a little over 4 tonnes per hectare in maize produce. The development effectively means most ordinary Zimbabweans can now become a millionaires if they put their hearts into it in the country which in 1976 while under international sanctions, rose to become number (4) four world-over in food production [SEE – The White Farmers of Zimbabwe [HISTORICAL].
Oldrieve argues that Africa has been robbed by preachers who have adopted what he calls the American Gospel which burdens people to pay preachers money before God can ever bless them. The US Prosperity Gospel has robbed Africa, he told ZimEye.com arguing[ SEE – US Prosperity Gospel robbing Africa.
 
The man who has obtained fame and recognition from universities worldwide through the groundbreaking scientific method he says God taught him while reading the Bible, said that Africa has enough natural resources to both feed itself and compete with the rest of the world, and the continent does not need any aid from Western Countries. After he gave up a lucrative tobacco farming enterprise in 1982, he was convinced that he had been farming a crop produce that was detrimental to people’s health. He would soon become a darling of the world and lecture to professors while not having a single university degree.
He told ZimEye.com he is “not at all” bitter about losing his farm during Robert Mugabe’s violent land reform program.
He said he recognises the land belongs to God and not to any individual:

“I mean we had our farm taken and I suppose our normal livelihood… but we are not bitter at all because first of all we are Christians and we believe that God gives and He takes away. The land belongs to God and He will chose whoever He wants to be stewards of that…We submit to God’s wisdom and greater knowledge on that.”
Oldrieve added that land reform was bound to happen:
“We are not bitter at all because actually the transition had to happen; Sure it wasn’t done in a very good way, but it’s also helped us now to teach full time; and so from having a farm in Africa, now we farm Africa; we have been called to 28 countries in Africa to teach and to create a model within Zimbabwe. We are very grateful for this amazing opportunity to concentrate on what we do now. In fact we helped the very people who took our land,” he said.
ZimEye.com profiles several farmers within Zimbabwe who are benefiting from Oldrieve’s free expertise as they make their fortunes. [SEE THE CASE STUDY BELOW]
The government realising his potential swallowing their pride gave him a job and a small plot on the outskirts of Mt Hampden, Harare where he trains black Zimbabweans for free. Zimbabweans wishing to train under the program can contact Oldrieve through his website, Foundations For Farming,(click here to go to the website).
 
 

 
Case study – VILLAGE TRANSFORMATION        
Like any of the 300,000 young people leaving school each year in rural Zimbabwe, Themba had very few prospects. He heard about Ebenezer College in Kezi where young people like him learn conservation farming principles from a friend.  He applied, and was happy to be part of the very first intake with other young people from nearby villages.

In addition to the training, as required Themba did 6hrs of voluntary community service in his village each week. For probably the first time he started to see other people’s needs, and with his 6 friends at Ebenezer they started to discuss what they can do. One of the guys paid fees for local aids orphans – at US1 each, this was not a lot.  Someone else wanted to help former classmates who now spent their time drinking local beer and hanging about. Themba felt he needed to assist in the local church and he approached the pastor who was very happy to receive help. Soon he had extra responsibility at church and his mentor noted quietly that Themba had lengthened his working day to enable him to earn more and serve the community better. He duly agreed to extend Themba’s plot to allow him to increase production.
At Themba’s exit interview from Ebenezer his tutor wrote of the huge vision of the young man who now wanted a whole lot more than just to assist his father to feed the family. Not long after Themba went back home, the local chief approached Ebenezer College and asked if he could bring all the local young men in his ward to Ebenezer. His words were particularly encouraging, he said ‘for many years I have been approached by outsiders wanting to implement one project or another. Our people have become used to this, and some have even come to expect such assistance. But when our own children start to look after aids orphans and give freely to the widows, then the village takes note. Even those who are used to asking for help are challenged and start to do some work for themselves’
What has been achieved using conservation farming?
First time farmers have achieved yields of 3tonnes per ha – a tenfold increase on our present production of less than 0.3t/ha. Experienced farmers have achieved anything up to 9t/ha. The research centre at Westgate has reached 16t/ha.
Consider that what the word calls a green revolution is an achievement of 3t/ha, consider that Zimbabwe’s annual grain yields are 2million t/ha – all it would take for the nation to feed itself is less than a million rural farmers adopting conservation farming. Consider that Zimbabwe is a Christian nation, and if on the 26th of September a million Christians buy in to this method of farming, our future looks bright. – By Na Ncube.

Foundation For Farming’s new website is www.foundationsforfarming.org