RUSAPE — It is the sort of a hillside that people would normally climb up crawling as they search for balance. It is not the sort of a place where you would expect a thriving farm, but villagers here have painstakingly eked a livelihood in these otherwise barren foothills of Makoni District, Rusape — home to 2014 winners of the equator prize on sustainable development.

The equator prize is awarded biennially to recognise champions of the green movement, practical environmental activists defending the planet and its people from the harsh reality and, perhaps, the greatest enemy of the modern world — climate change.

The Makoni Organic Farmers Association (MOFA) beat 1 234 other communities drawn from 121 countries who have committed their lives to protecting the endangered planet and the life that thrives on it.