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Lovemore Chikova
Development Dialogue
While officially opening the First Session of the 10th Parliament of Zimbabwe on Tuesday, President Mnangagwa mentioned one of the developmental programmes being implemented by the Second Republic which is changing the face of rural areas.
The programme involves the home-grown Village Agro-Business Units that are being set up throughout the country.
This is profound in that every village, of the 35 000 that exist in the country, will soon become a registered company with villagers owning shares.
Imagine the huge positive impact of having 35 000 companies operating in villages and bringing income to the villagers? That is a huge leap forward in rural development.
Once this is done, it means almost everyone in Zimbabwe will be earning an income, hence contributing drastically to the attainment of Vision 2030.
Vision 2030 envisages the country becoming an upper middle income economy, where people will be earning between US$4 046 and US$12 535.
The Village Agro-Business Units will, without doubt, add more impetus to achieving this goal, as they will leave no one and no place behind in terms of earning some income.
Speaking on the Village Agro-Business Units while opening the parliamentary session, President Mnangagwa said: “The robust measures put in place by Government to enhance and guarantee agricultural productivity, including irrigation development and climate-proofing, saw us realise national food security.
“Zimbabwe is now wheat self-sufficient. The Second Republic has begun the drilling of 35 000 boreholes and establishing Village Agro-Business Units. This is set to consolidate national agriculture productivity and food self-sufficiency.”
The development milestone comes under the Presidential Rural Development Programme that was launched by President Mnangagwa in 2021, as the Second Republic accelerates efforts to alleviate poverty among the rural folks in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
The Presidential Rural Development Programme is part of the Rural Development 8.0 drive whose other components include the Pfumvudza/Intwasa, Presidential Cotton Scheme, Presidential Blitz Tick Grease Scheme, Presidential Goat Scheme, the Vision 30 Accelerator Model and the Presidential Poultry Scheme.
According to the parameters of the project, the scheme targets to drill 35 000 boreholes during the NDS1 phase from 2021 to 2025.
In addition, 9 600 boreholes will be drilled by the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency in selected schools under the same programme.
A significant number of villages in various parts of the country are already equipped with boreholes that are powered by solar.
During the ruling Zanu PF’s campaign for the August 23 harmonised elections, President Mnangagwa took advantage of the huge crowds at his rallies to explain the Village Agro-Business Units to villagers.
He also handed over company documents to some of the villages that are already operating profitably under these business units.
The Village Agro-Business Units operate in such a way that they are registered as formal companies, with community members being both shareholders and employees.
They will have a solar-powered borehole, water storage tanks, fish ponds, a one-hectare drip irrigated horticulture project and communal water points.
Orchards and poultry projects are part of these business units.
The boreholes will also provide drinking water for the villages, as well as providing water for livestock and dip tanks.
The Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) develops the business case for the Village Agro-Business Units and assists in their registration as formal companies to be run on sound commercial lines using the local people.
On the other hand, the Agricultural Marketing Authority assists the business units in the identification of markets for their products, which also determines the crops they can viably produce.
Some beneficiaries of the Village Agro-Business Units are already receiving dividends, while others are expecting dividend pay-outs of up to US$3 000.
In Manicaland, for example, the Village Agro-Business Units have been established in various villages, including Chisuma, Temaruru, Tamburikayi, Hakwata, Chichesa, Mutema Secondary and at Chief Mutema’s homestead.
Speaking on these business units, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) spokesperson Marjorie Munyonga said: “The VBUs have proved to be a game changer for the beneficiary rural communities whose lives are being transformed in terms of food security, employment creation and enhanced income generation.
“Beneficiaries, who are both employees and shareholders of the VBUs, are already sharing success stories in which they are now capable of meeting their needs such as the payment of school fees for their children.”
ZINWA is involved in the project through the drilling of boreholes in the villages.
A beneficiary from Manicaland, Mr Ngonidzashe Manyukwa, was quoted saying their lives were now on a firm transformational path through these localised business development units.
“We are grateful for the Presidential Rural Development Programme. Some of us never thought we would see such real development in our lifetime and we welcome this programme,” he said. “We are already looking forward to our first dividend after selling the current crop.”
Testimonies from other villagers who are already benefiting from the Village Agro-Business Units show that the face of villages is being changed for the better by the Second Republic.
Headman Solomon Mbuyamaswa and 67 others from his village in Zaka Central constituency, Masvingo Province, are already experiencing this life-changing project that is coming under President Mnangagwa’s rural industrialisation vision.
Headman Mbuyamaswa and his fellow shareholders are spearheading a horticulture project, which has now turned into a fully-fledged business enterprise, after benefiting from a solar-powered borehole under the project.
“We have set up our company under the name Mbuyamaswa Village Business Unit,” he said after meeting President Mnangagwa at Chinorumba High School recently. “Our bank, AFC, has already promised to give us a loan to expand our operations to purchase irrigation pipes to enable us to grow more cash crops.
“Our lives will never be the same again, as all 68 of us will be getting monthly income from this project.”
Explaining the nitty-gritties of the Village Agro-Business Units, Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said: “One of the first villages to have such a company is the Mbuyamaswa Village Business Unit Cooperative, under Headman Mbuyamaswa village, here in Zaka.
“This company will have Pfumvudza plots, from where they will generate monthly income. They will also have horticulture projects. The Headman will be chairperson of the company. The members of the village will be shareholders. This is the development that we are undertaking, under President Mnangagwa.”
Dr Masuka said under the model, villagers will also be working with banks.
“They will all be able to open bank accounts and get loans,” he said. “In these bank accounts, they will be able to receive monthly incomes. Members of Mbuyamaswa village already have their bank cards and have started to earn an income.”
President Mnangagwa visited the Jinjika community in Mangwe, Matabeleland South Province, where he launched a similar Village Agro-Business Unit known as the Sekusile Makorokoro Presidential Horticulture Scheme, which has since changed the lives of the villagers.
Chairperson of the scheme, Mr Buzwani Maphosa said the project changed the lives of nearly 150 villagers in the area.
“Since we started farming, we have harvested four times and this is our fifth crop,” he said. “The garden has changed our lives. We have been able to supply the local market with our products and even sell to the neighbouring villages such as Mayobodo.
“In the past, people used to travel as far as Bulawayo just to get vegetables but we are now the major supplier here. Even our nutrition has greatly improved.”
The story is the same in Muzarabani, Mashonaland Central Province, where villagers’ lives have been transformed by the earnings from the Village Agro-Business Units.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr Gift Mubinyi, was quoted as saying the programme gave villagers an opportunity to engage in life saving projects such as horticulture and gardening.
“The programme is greatly appreciated because it gives us the opportunity to acquire crops which do not do well in their region. Our area does not receive enough rainfall so with boreholes we can also grow maize to sustain our families. This programme is a welcome development which will enable us to diversify,’’ he said.
On the other hand, and under the same programme, ARDA has been piloting 200-hectare irrigation schemes in each province which will act as models for rural farmers.
These schemes and other units are run as business units under the management of a resident ARDA scheme business manager.
Villagers on these schemes are shareholders who will get dividends once ARDA harvests and markets the produce.
At the recently commissioned Chivhu Dam in Mashonaland East, villagers have since formed and registered a company called Chivhu Irrigation Scheme Private Limited, and are benefiting from an irrigation scheme and commercial fishery projects.
The villagers are getting technical support from ARDA and funding is from the Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC).
Online Reporter