Online Reporter
Edgar Vhera, Specialist Writer – Agribusiness
THE Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) Vision Incubator and Accelerator Model (VIAM) will facilitate access to land for 260 000 local land seekers and mobilise agriculture investments from over 10 000 diasporans, a key policy document says.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development has 270 000 people in its database seeking land to undertake agricultural production.
According to the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy 2 (AFSRTS 2) 2026-30, ARDA’s VIAM Vision Agriculture is a crowd-funding model targeting over 260 000 land seekers on the waiting list.
It also seeks to facilitate investments from over 10 000 people living in the diaspora, who have expressed interest in having land for agricultural purposes.
“The proposed ARDA VIAM is a vehicle for empowerment and investment, unlocking the potential of land, without the burden of owning and running discrete and uneconomically viable units of land,” read AFSRTS 2.
ARDA will make use of land under its estates to onboard the prospective farmers.
The ARDA VIAM financial framework targets the production of 735 000 tonnes of maize, wheat and traditional grains with a gross value of US$297,360 million annually.
A gross margin profit of US$224 060 760 will be realised from this production, with an operating profit of US$188,823 million annually.
ARDA director of commercial services, Mr Dominic Sadziwa, said ARDA VIAM was an investment fund model, which involved the creation of an investment asset.
“The investment assets allow for the pooling of funds from diverse investors with different risk appetites, but with no specific preference on the underlying projects.
“The fund will allow for pooling of deposits into the fund by over 260 000 local land seekers who have expressed interest in land and over 10 000 Zimbabweans in the diaspora and Zimbabwean exporters who have export proceeds,” he said.
Mr Sadziwa said the land designated for the investment fund would be used as the underlying asset for the fund.
“The investment structure is open to the irrigation infrastructure players, the general populace and financial investment institutions such as pension funds.
“The model is a vehicle for preservation of agricultural land, avoiding large-scale villagisation, assuring the nation of food security, generating much-needed exports, creating value addition and beneficiation as well as accelerating rural industrialisation,” he said.
The fund will have a short-term revolving facility which will focus on the fast turnaround crops, utilising short-dated bank instruments to finance the transactions. Annual crops with production in a calendar year stand to benefit from this facility.
“It will also have a long-term investment portfolio focused on the crops and fruit trees which require patient capital over the 3-to-5-year tenure,” he said.
Under this category fall perennial crops; key fruits like citrus, bananas and tropical fruits, along with plantation crops such as coffee and tea. Blueberries and avocados are in this grouping as well.
Mr Sadziwa said there would be an energy portfolio to focus on investing in renewable energy projects to augment the farming projects and operations.
“A logistics portfolio which will focus on investment into pack-houses for the produce as well as the cold transportation services to move the produce from farm to airport,” Mr Sadziwa said.
Presenting the 2026 national budget recently, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said Government would promote Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) under the auspices of the Irrigation Development Alliance (IDA), targeting 37 000 hectares and other joint ventures (JVs), including the ARDA VIAM Wholesale Model, which are expected to contribute a further 17 000ha in 2026.
