Agric funded trust to roll out scholarship programme

Elton Manguwo

A MINIMUM of 500 disadvantaged children from the country’s 10 provinces are set to benefit from a scholarship programme to be rolled out by the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) every year.

The trust fund is meant to empower and develop communities through vibrant corporate social responsibility programmes and is wholly supported by earnings from farming. It is a working model of how farmers can apply agriculture business practices to generate real income for the benefit of both their families and communities while contributing to national food security at large.

“The trust that was formed in 1999, has so far funded renovations at Excelsiaor Falls Primary School in Vumba and scheduled to do renovations on rural health care centres this year,” DTZ general manager, Mr Emmanuel Jaricha said.

DTZ’s flagship business unit, Nuanetsi Ranch is entirely owned and operated by the trust fund on a 300 000-hectare piece of arable agriculture land. The ranch is in various joint venture programmes with stakeholders such as Cutstar Investments under which they formed a company called Zimbabwe Bio Energy (ZBE).

“ZBE is a cattle ranching company with a beef cattle herd size of 4 500 and also runs a wildlife game with special focus on trophy hunting,” said Mr Jaricha.

DTZ was initiated in June 1989 as a vehicle to promote the interests, well-being, education and experiences of Zimbabweans in the fields of agriculture and commerce.

The trust fund pilots and manages Greencroft Estates, a subsidiary of the group. The estate plantation is a prime example of an intensive and mixed production model. The Greencroft estate is a 470-hectares plantation that has various agro-enterprises that include 103 hectares under timber, 22ha of macadamia nut trees and two hectares for a horticulture garden.

Furthermore, DTZ has developed a backward and forward integrated business model through the creation of ZAGRINDA, a joint venture with Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA). The company is into agro-processing and value addition with two processing plants that process fruits and tomatoes into juice, puree and paste in a development that positions it to extract maximum value from its farming operations.

In addition, the group’s business interests are also spread into sugar manufacturing and processing. Nuanetsi has a partnership with Tongaat and Huletts to form Mutirikwi Sugar company (MSC) that produces sugar on a 3 400-hectare plantation.

DTZ supplies local, regional and international markets with macadamia nuts, fresh vegetables, chickens and eggs.