By Recently in Mutoko, Econet Zimbabwe in collaboration with Cell Insurance brought provincial Zimbabwe Farmers Union leadership, farmers, and agritex officers, Plan International, USAid, Mutoko Chief and Councillors under one roof to witness the Ecofamer Crop Cover Pay-out ceremony.
By Tongai Mwenje
The event was hosted by Mutoko District Agritex department together with Mr and Mrs Gurupira who provided the venue for the function, where more than twenty individuals walked away with cash in their Ecocash wallets as part of benefits that comes with Ecofamer Crop Cover.
Ecofarmer is an application developed and designed by Econet specifically for people who are in farming business to provide them with advisory services via bulk SMS, that includes weather conditions, market prices for their produce and alerting them of any weather hazards. The app also provides every farming nitty gritties, like in some instances farmers are advised to make preparations, start planting etc.
For one to be registered as an Ecofamer subscriber they dial USSD Code *300# and it will take you through to Ecofarmer service. Once registered as an Ecofarmer subscriber you then become eligible to register for crop insurance cover. The insurance service comes in two packages namely $2.50 and $10 voucher per season.
It’s either you insure your crops for 2.50 per season or $10, the beauty of the product is that it gives room for one to buy at most 5 vouchers of each package meaning a farmer can buy 5 Vouchers for $10 each totalling to an amount of $50 for the crop cover. How then does it benefit the farmer? This service only benefits the farmer in times of crop losses as a result of maybe excessive or no rainfall, the farmer will get 10 times of the insured value as crop cover for the loss.
Speaking at the function Ecofarmer Manager George Mashiri said, ‘Farmers will benefit from the service when there is no rainfall for 24 consecutive days during the rainy season, the information will be provided with the help of our 23 weather stations which we have installed in Mashonaland East’. ‘This is a product that will help farmers to recover from losses during drought seasons’, he reiterated
‘Ecofamer has more than 300 000 registered farmers so far meaning the product is receiving acceptance from the farmers’, said Econet Chief Marketing Officer Isaiah Nyangari. ‘Very soon we will be introducing Ecocash Agro Merchant Shops where farmers will get cheap and affordable inputs payable via Ecocash’, he said.
Those who benefitted from the initiative received their dues via Econet mobile money transfer Ecocash, the beneficiaries are in two folds, those who insured their crop for $2.50 and those who insured for $10, the beneficiaries who received $25 and $100 respectively are as follows;
EcoFarmer Mutoko Pay-out Schedule
$100 Pay-Out
Name Amount Paid Mobile Number
| Mercy Musora | $100 | 0777 430 648 |
| Mary Mujuru | $100 | 0771 487 748 |
| Shepherd Muyangwa | $100 | 0776 216 179 |
| Rudo Nyakudanga | $100 | 0776 302 521 |
| Annie Rinemhota | $100 | 0772 686 968 |
| Loice Chimhanda | $100 | 0775 670 061 |
| Admire Mvembe | $100 | 0773 994 685 |
| Gilbert Nyaumba | $100 | 0774 846 864 |
| Learmore Kanombirira | $100 | 0778 753 338 |
| $25 Pay-Out | ||
| Kesca Kapoka | $25 | 0775 914 958 |
| Rita Rinomhota | $25 | 0773 098 123 |
| Agrippa Chitehwe | $25 | 0776 609 626 |
| Precious Gurupira | $25 | 0779 285 487 |
| Blantina Ndemere | $25 | 0777 429 234 |
| Artmore Zinanzva | $25 | 0774 451 209 |
| Teclah Dekeshe | $25 | 0776 769 035 |
| Yanai Mariwo | $25 | 0774 606 136 |
| Tirivaviri Mukweza | $25 | 0775 419 033 |
| Charles Mataya | $25 | 0777 422 364 |
| Melfort Chasara | $25 | 0774 825 344 |
| Mudzengerere Mudzengerere | $25 | 0779 476 396 |
| Yanai Gwariwa | $25 | 0775 328 370 |
| Total Premium Paid Out | $1250 |
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