The European Union and Switzerland are investing over €200 million (CHF187 million) in projects to make Zimbabwe, , more food secure and resilient to climate change. At the heart of one initiative is a goat that does not get milked.

Mutiusinazita, in Buhera district some 220km south-east of the capital Harare, is one of the driest parts of Zimbabwe. The annual rainfall of 650 to 700mm is not enough to make agriculture profitable. As a result, hunger and poverty are widespread.

Jesca Mutero (46) was a typical resident of Mutiusinazita. Poor and widowed, she tilled a small field that yielded little to nothing each year. Her home was a one-room hut.

But in the last four years her life and that of her two children have changed. She now owns 45 goats and has built a three-room house. Four years ago, she got about only on foot; now she owns a motorbike. “Before this project, I was struggling. We cultivated the land, but the harvest often failed. Thanks to the goats we can now make a living,” she says.

Mutero is a member of the Mutiusinazita Buhera Livestock Association, a co-operative of 38 women who breed goats.

The project is part of the €40 million Zimbabwe Agriculture Growth Programme, launched by the European Union in 2016 to support the country’s livestock sector.