adminARDA is in the process of securing funding for the purchase of irrigation equipment to assist A2 farmers to increase productivity on their farms.
The parastatal’s board chairman, Mr Basil Nyabadza, said Arda is looking for investors to partner A2 farmers with farm sizes of over 200 hectares who will finance farming activities on the pieces of land.
“We are now working on a programme which we are calling the Graduation Programme. Arda is now looking for investors to partner respective beneficiaries of the Land Reform Programme. If one has got 200 hectares of land with water they must talk to us because Arda is now putting together sufficient funds so that we put irrigation first on those farms through a tripartite arrangement. This will comprise of the owner of the farm, Arda to look after the issues of land tenure and the partner to come in with the resources. That will believe will unlock value and return the dignity that our people own the land,” he said.
Mr Nyabadza said the move was meant to ensure that farmers use land as a resource to secure investments instead of seeking funding from financial institutions which he said had high interest rates which made it difficult for new farmers to repay the loans.
The Graduation Programme is set to go full swing in the next winter wheat cropping season with the first farmers to benefit from the scheme expected to grow wheat which will significantly reduce the country’s import bill.
The country has been importing the commodity to offset a deficit due to low hecterage which farmers have been growing due to a number of challenges among them high power tariffs and lack of inputs to grow the crop. Arda has also secured a market for soya beans and maize which will see the prices fetching favourable prices and farmers under the Graduation Programme will be asked to grow such crops.
“We have identified a market for maize, wheat and soya beans and we are now working on a business model which will lead to a financial model and will ultimately lead to production. So it will be a market led production.”
Online Reporter