Why a co-op instead of going it alone

Green Valley Co-op on Harare Road is not one farm but several, working the same stretch of land together since 2015. Carrots, green peppers and lettuce are their focus - vegetables that reward the kind of careful, shared irrigation a co-op can afford that a single small grower often cannot.

The members split the work by season and by skill: some are better with pest control, others with harvest timing. What they sell through Chitemere Fresh is pooled from whoever has the best crop that week.

"On your own, one bad week can be the difference between profit and nothing," one member put it. "Together, one bad week is just a bad week."