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We sat down with the inspirational Engineer Gomba to get an insight into his illustrious journey in farming and how it started and how he has gotten here.
Background: Who is Engineer Gomba, what was your engineering career journey before farming?
- I finished university in 1992, and I worked for Morewear industries as a graduate engineer for five years. I left there when I was the Factory Manager to join ART Corporation and manage the operations of Softex Tissue Products. So I did the five years with Morewear and five years with ART Corporation. Basically, those were my hands-on engineering or factory exposure for 10 years. After that, I left to run my own projects, centering mainly on agriculture. At one time, I was running a milling company in Kwekwe, then there was no maize supply. So I decided, look, I think because of shortage of raw material, it was going to be difficult to run any agricultural or any food processing operation. So I decided to go back in the value chain to the primary production, where I was doing mainly cattle & horticulture. So from 2002 up to now, I've been involved mainly in horticulture and doing cattle. Basically, that's what I've been doing.
Farming: What inspired your decision to transition from engineering to becoming a master farmer? Was it a gradual shift, or did you make the decision all at once?
- Well, Genesis 47 verse 3 ( Pharaoh asks Jacob's sons, "What is your occupation?", and they reply, "Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers". ) really would describe aptly myself. When we were born on a farm in Bikita, it was like you are born, you are initiated with the war. Kubatisiwa badza chaiko chaiko. So we grew up in agriculture, we grew up in farming, and our family, really my father was an African purchasing area farmer in Bikita, and then he moved to Gokwe and he is the one who pioneered the production of cotton in Gokwe. So that's the background. We are really farmers in the family. So I always wanted to do farming even at University, then later on I realised I would really go into engineering because my passes were very good. So I went into engineering, finished engineering, and then did some engineering for the 10 years I told you about, and then transitioned back into farming where I realised that look, I can be a very good engineer, yes, but what really was running in my blood was farming. We are a farming family by virtue of our traditional exposure and values. I was really going back to my roots as it were, moving from engineering back to my roots. I'm still practising engineering, mainly at the corporate level, that is boards of organisations where they need an engineer on the board. Basically, that's where I do my engineering mostly. I still think I will go back into engineering where what I want to do now is to value-add. I hope to develop systems that would add value to the primary produce that we have now, then feed that into value addition and also incorporate marketing.
Engineering Skills in Farming: How has your background in engineering influenced your approach to farming? Are there specific skills or principles you’ve carried over?
- Yes, I run my plot here fully on drip irrigation systems. I don't invite people to come and install drip systems for me. I do that on my own. Developing productive systems because I specialised mainly in mechanical and production engineering, so developing productive systems, installing irrigation systems, installing pumps, and things like that I'll do that on my own. But more so just ensuring that my production on the farm is well-coordinated. I do that a lot, and I learned that those skills of coordinating productive systems from the engineering profession.
Challenges in Transition: What were the most significant challenges you faced when making this career change, and how did you overcome them?
I didn't get much challenges in transitioning from engineering to agriculture because my background was in agriculture and my trained skills were engineering. So I really just had to fuse the two and move forward. I didn't really get much challenges because farming was really what I was introduced to as I was born. An ox-drawn Plough, driving cattle, or taming cattle, those were the skills we got from our parents during the primary school days. So transitioning into farming, it was like coming back to that, which I know best because of exposure from early childhood.
Learning Curve: Did you undergo any formal agricultural training, or did you rely on hands-on experience and self-learning to become proficient in farming?
I think I've addressed that one. I never really sat a lecture in agriculture, but I believe my father and my mother in the basic African education system, they were good trainers. I think they deserve to be professors in teaching people how to farm. Those are the people who taught me. As I'm talking now, I chair the board of Mlezu Agricultural College. As I'm talking now, I've got a whole bunch of students visiting my farm from Mlezu next week to come and visit and learn more on the ground. And all those skills and approach to agriculture and farming, I got from my parents. So really, they are my trainers. They are now both late, but they were my mentors. They were my trainers. They did a lot of work on me.
Technology in Agriculture: Recently Bridging Gaps Foundation listed you as one of the farmers benefitting from the Affordable tillage program, how has this impacted your work?
- Look, bridging the gap, they did about a hectare of just ploughing my farm. I benefited from them, I’m thankful. I still want to work with them, not necessarily to benefit me, but in terms of how best we can work together in impacting society. They've got very good machinery, a very good programme, and I want to really work with them as a consultant and advisor in how best, we can improve utilisation of those resources. Yeah, I think they are coming in with their responses to technological requirements in agriculture, and we applaud them for that. May God bless them. But I really want to work with them more in terms of improving the service delivery and the impact of their involvement in society.
How else do you leverage technology, such as precision farming tools or automation, in your agricultural practices?
- I run all my cropping on drip irrigation. Be it trees, fruit trees, or whatever. I run on drip irrigation because my water resources are limited, and it's a finite resource, and I want to make sure that I make maximum utilisation of that water. So to me, drip is the way to go. Other people argue and say, look, it is limited. Yes, it is limited, but if we are educated and we are engineers, we can now really say how best can we still make it effective in our fields. I still want now to also venture into drone technology so far as application of chemicals and the fertilisers. I think it's an area that I will really focus on in this coming year to bring in more technology. I also want to bring in more small machines like the two wheel tractors to manoeuvre where the big tractors cannot manoeuvre. I think I really want to see more technology coming in so that it will improve on the efficiency of the farm.
Major Milestones: What would you say is your greatest accomplishment in farming so far? How does it compare to achievements in your engineering career?
- Well, I sent my children mainly to school and to university using my cattle ranching project, which I ended up really disposing of everything. Because of the January disease, I realised that, look, during those three, four years ago I removed all my cattle. The January disease was not yet curable. So I decided to disinvest and wait and see. So, yeah, agriculture sent my children to school. Agriculture, in terms of animal production, would buy me all my cars. Agriculture would afford me the luxuries that I wanted. But more so, my farming has always been and still is impacting people around as they come to buy things for selling horticulture products like tomatoes & cabbages, you know, it's very good. And also young people, they come to learn. Always at any time I've got students from universities and colleges that are being impacted who are coming in for attachment. And I like that as a contribution to the development of agriculture in our society.
Advice for Transitioning Professionals: What advice would you give to other professionals considering a similar transition into farming or agriculture?
- Agriculture is a hands-on type of practice. I want to give a hats off to my president, Elder Kondongwe. Every time I visit him in Masvingo, more than half the time he says, wait for me, I'm still at the farm. And that's how its done. There's no other way. So advice is, look, if you are going to transition into farming, be prepared to put on your gumboots. Be prepared to go in the mud. Don't be too smart for agriculture. Basically, the best fertiliser in a farmer's field are his feet. So if you are transitioning, be prepared to go in the battlefield.
Future Goals: What are your long-term aspirations for your farm? Are you looking to expand, diversify crops, or venture into agro-processing?
- Agro-processing is the way to go. And also develop my son into taking over the farm and developing it further. We are bringing in new crops. We have started in on cassava. This year we have done sweet potatoes, and we are now beginning to sell them. And we want all these. My son is doing paw paws, and we want all these to be processed. On the animal side, we are trying to bring in goats. We've already started. We now have almost 40 on the ground. We think by the end of this year, we must have at least 500 goats to link up with other crops that we do so that the goats will be eating the by-products from our agriculture, our cropping exercises. So yeah, in the near the future, we are bringing back the animals, but this time linking them up with our cropping.
Reflection on Fulfilment: How does the fulfilment you get from farming compare to what you experienced in engineering? Do you find farming more personally rewarding?
- The reward I get from farming is the fulfilment that I want to see things grow, I love to see animals giving birth and increasing. I love to see crops germinating and growing until you harvest. I love to see that. In terms of rewards, definitely it's much more if you are going to be an expert. Ask anyone. If you've got a piece of land and you do it well, the rewards are good. I think I've tried to summarise as much. I want to really encourage young people. One of the things that I will be doing, maybe starting in 2026, is to really go out there and start working with young people, mentoring young people. I would love to do that. If anything, actually, even in ASI, I would love to identify young people who are in agriculture and work with them, encouraging them, developing them into well established businesses. Working together in terms of developing markets and processing plants, whatever I'm producing, those are the areas that I want to be involved in. Thank you.
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