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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
ACTING President Phelekezela Mphoko has urged agro-businesses to support the country’s agricultural sector through partnering agricultural co-operatives.
Cde Mphoko said the partnerships would improve productivity, provide greater income for farmers and ensure a ready market for the products from agricultural communities.
The Acting President said this yesterday at Pollards Irrigation Scheme in Bubi District, Matabeleland North.
He was accompanied by the Minister of State for Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs, Cde Cain Mathema, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Mechanisation Development, responsible for cropping, Davison Marapira, Agritex officials and other government officials.
Cde Mphoko emphasised the need for businesses to partner villagers in farming projects to ensure a stable source of income for farmers.
He said Pollards irrigation scheme, which has a membership of 108 farmers and covers 45 hectares’ of land, has good soils but only the maximum utilisation of the land would go a long way in ensuring food security in the community.
“I’m here to assess the project and see how it’s performing. I realise that the land is being under-utilised due to lack of resources. We must turn this project into one and villagers become shareholders. With the limited investments that can be shouldered by villagers, intervention by agro business companies is valuable to achieve better yields,” said Cde Mphoko.
“The soil here is good but the villagers don’t have the capacity to fully utilise this piece of land. The equipment is also obsolete, which affects production of crops.”
He urged Bubi Rural District Council and the local leadership to work together in ensuring that villagers have access to water.
“When the government appoints leaders, we expect them to work for their communities and use the opportunities given to them as leaders. We mustn’t expect people to come from other provinces to provide us with the resources that we need. The council must make sure that villagers have access to water by sinking boreholes,” said Cde Mphoko.
The chairperson of the irrigation scheme, Antilla Ncube, said they planted maize and sugar beans on 10 acres.
The maize crop was the second since the inception of the project last year. “The scheme has 108 members and each member is allocated rows where they plant their maize crop. This season we also decided to try sugar beans and see how we perform.
“The challenges that we’re facing include old irrigation equipment that needs a lot of attention. The supply dam is about 6km from the irrigation scheme. The canal is old and has several leaks, which makes it difficult for the crop to receive sufficient water. Due to the leaks it takes six hours for the water to reach the crops.”
Pollards is one of the 20 irrigation schemes in Matabeleland North that benefited from the first phase of the $38,6 million Brazil food for Africa mechanisation programme.
The irrigation scheme received a tractor under the programme.
Deputy Minister Marapira said the government was in the process of sourcing state of the art irrigation equipment to replace outdated systems that affect production at irrigation schemes.
derick.khumalo