Agric project set to benefit 3 636 farmers

Agriculture Reporter
THREE-THOUSAND-SIX-HUNDRED-AND-THIRTY- SIX small-holder farmers will benefit from the Union Project conservation agriculture programme currently running at 21 sites in 11 districts of Zimbabwe.
UP board member Mr Paul Zakariya told delegates at a recent workshop in Harare that the project had helped increase productivity and integration into mar- kets.
“The adoption of UP’s conservation agriculture project has helped commercialise smallholder agriculture in communal lands with the private sector financing inputs and absorbing produce.
“This gave farmers a guaranteed market for their produce and even slashed incidences of side-marketing,” he said.
An evaluator and consultant on sustainable development, Mr Ebbie Dengu, revealed that the UP programme had enhanced farmers’ access to finance, inputs, marketing skills and organisational capacity.
“Through UP, smallholder farmers have been able to receive quality extension and have consequently bettered their agronomic skills and in their groups they can easily form commodity associations and practice organised agriculture.
“Crop yields have also gone up three to four times with average maize yields of up to 3,75 tonnes per hectare compared to 0,8 tonnes per hectare on the national level,” he explained.
Mr Dengu said 68 percent of farmers had harvested enough food for 12 months.
He was, however, quick to observe that contract farming was only viable in high value crops like bananas, chillies, paprika and tobacco.
“Farmers should make repayments for all support received and do away with the dependency syndrome in which they expect free inputs while the private sector should also supply inputs for key crops.
“UP should also consider assisting to set up local input-output agro-dealers to enable them to supply farmers with inputs and later purchase their produce.
“The potential of the smallholder farmer is huge and largely untapped.”
UP’s first phase ended in December 2010 and operations have been extended to 2013.
It is running in Mount Darwin, Guruve, Chiweshe, Goromonzi, Murehwa, Mutasa, Nyanga, Rusape, Masvingo, Gokwe and Hurungwe.