In brief:
•    The Green Climate Fund, Government of Zimbabwe, and UNDP are helping women farmers access labour-saving tools. 
•    Earth augers help women prepare fields faster and plant on time. 
•    Threshers and grinder-choppers reduce exhausting manual farm work. 
•    Saved time allows women to join trainings, gardens and income activities. 
•    The tools improve productivity, wellbeing and climate resilience.

For generations, farming for rural women in southern Zimbabwe has been synonymous with hard labour. Long before sunrise, women would already be in the fields digging planting basins by hand, threshing grain manually, or chopping livestock feed using axes and machetes. After spending hours performing physically demanding agricultural tasks, they would return home to fetch water, prepare meals, care for children, and manage countless household responsibilities.

For many women, farming was not just a livelihood, it was a cycle of relentless exhaustion.

Today, that reality is beginning to change.

Across vulnerable farming communities in southern Zimbabwe, labour-saving technologies introduced through the Climate Resilient Livelihoods Project, supported by the Green Climate Fund, the Government of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are helping women reclaim their time, energy and opportunities.
Through the distribution of earth augers, multi-crop threshers and grinder-choppers to 230 Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) across project districts, women farmers are experiencing a new way of farming, one that reduces drudgery, improves productivity and creates space for greater participation in economic and community life.
In Kichini Village in Buhera District, Christine Mudzingwa vividly recalls how difficult land preparation used to be before the arrival of earth augers.

Every farming season, women spent days manually digging planting basins for their Pfumvudza plots using hoes. The work became especially difficult during dry periods when the soil hardened under intense heat. Although men occasionally assisted, much of the burden fell on women and children.
“Digging planting basins manually was one of the most exhausting jobs,” said Christine. “You would spend the whole day bent over with a hoe in hard soil. By evening, you were completely worn out, but the work would still not be finished.”

In a region already characterized by high temperatures and erratic rainfall, delayed land preparation often meant delayed planting, reducing farmers’ ability to take advantage of increasingly short and unpredictable rainy seasons.
“Sometimes the rains would come before we finished preparing our plots,” Christine explained. “That affected our yields because timing is very important in farming.”
The introduction of earth augers has dramatically reduced this burden.
The machines quickly and uniformly drill planting holes, enabling farmers to prepare their fields in a fraction of the time previously required.
“The auger has brought real relief to women,” said Christine. “Now we can finish preparing our plots quickly and plant on time. Women are no longer spending days doing painful work in the fields.”
The benefits extend far beyond agriculture.
Time once spent digging basins is now being invested in savings groups, nutrition gardens, income-generating activities and community development initiatives. Women are also able to participate more actively in Farmer Field School activities and village meetings.
“Before, farming took all our time,” Christine said. “Now there is balance. I can work in my garden, spend time with my family and even rest.”

Hundreds of kilometres away in Nsimbi Village, Gwanda District, Precious Hobane has witnessed similar changes through the introduction of threshers and grinder-choppers.
Before receiving the equipment, women spent countless hours manually threshing grain and chopping crop residues to prepare livestock feed.
“Preparing feed for livestock used to take us the whole day,” said Precious. “We chopped stover manually, and it was very tiring work. During harvest time, threshing grain was another difficult task for women.”
Today, the machines have transformed these labour-intensive activities.
“Now the grinder-chopper does the heavy work for us,” she explained. “We can prepare enough feed for our livestock much faster, and threshing grain no longer takes days.”
For women in drought-prone areas such as Gwanda, the ability to efficiently process and preserve livestock feed is particularly important. During prolonged dry spells, livestock survival often depends on how well fodder is prepared and stored.
“The machines are helping us take better care of our livestock, especially during drought seasons,” said Precious. “At the same time, women are no longer exhausted from doing everything manually.”
The technologies are also creating new economic opportunities.
Several Farmer Field Schools are hiring out the equipment to neighbouring farmers for land preparation, threshing and feed processing services. The income generated is being used to maintain the machinery, purchase agricultural inputs, strengthen savings groups and support vulnerable households.
Perhaps most importantly, the technologies are changing perceptions about women’s participation in agriculture and leadership.
With reduced workloads, women are attending training sessions more consistently, participating in decision-making processes and taking on leadership roles within farmer groups and communities.
“Women now have confidence because they have more time and energy to participate in other activities,” said Precious. “Before, most of our time was spent struggling with hard labour.”
The changes may seem simple, a machine drilling holes, threshing grain or chopping feed, but for women carrying the dual burden of farming and household care, the impact is profound.

Reducing drudgery is improving physical wellbeing, restoring dignity and creating opportunities for women to focus on activities that increase household incomes and strengthen resilience to climate shocks.
For Christine Mudzingwa and Precious Hobane, these technologies are more than pieces of equipment. They represent hope, opportunity and a future where women no longer have to sacrifice their health and wellbeing simply to feed their families.
“These machines have changed how we live and work,” said Christine. “Women now have time to think about improving their lives, not just surviving each farming season.”
Across southern Zimbabwe, the steady hum of earth augers, threshers and grinder-choppers is becoming the sound of transformation, helping women reclaim their time, their strength and their future.