Chronicle Editor
Fidelis Munyoro, Harare Bureau
A Chinese agriculture firm has pledged to work with Government and local farmers to help turn around the fortunes of the country’s agriculture which is likely to see Zimbabwe reclaiming its bread basket status.
China Lesso Group, a Hong Kong stock exchange listed firm, deals in agriculture equipment, home equipment and PVC products.
The company’s high-powered five-member delegation is in the country and yesterday visited two farms — Bonata Farm in Norton and Mon-Chris Farm in Chegutu —on a familiarisation tour, which gave them an insight of how farming is done in the country.
At Bonata Farm the delegation toured the raspberry green house, where drip irrigation is used. The production of the crop is facing a myriad of challenges including electricity for constant pumping of the water supply to the green house.
The farm which is owned by Munyaradzi Mapara also cannot afford adequate plastics used to make green houses. They only manage to get the plastic roofing done for the thriving crop. The berries are exported to China where there is a niche market.
From Bonata Farm, the delegation went to Mon- Chris farm where they examined the pivot system used to water the maize crop and equipment at the farm.
The farm is owned by the Mutsvangwa family—Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa and her husband Chris.
The farm representative told the Chinese delegation problems they are facing and inhibiting desired yield.
Electricity and water supplies appeared to be a great challenge for the farm which draws its water a few kilometres away. They were also apprised of adequate and proper farming machinery required for proper agricultural activities.
Speaking to journalists after touring the two farms, head of the delegation Mr Tang Hai Bo noted the need for the country to move with time and adopt smart agriculture technology and improve food production and security.
“During our tour of the two farms we have noted that at Bonata Farm, they have problems with water systems and filtering system of the drip irrigation plus the necessary maintenance,” said Mr Tang
“However, they have made a proposal for upgrading the whole system right now. We will see how we can work with them to improve the situation.”
On Mon-Chris Farm, Mr Tang said they appreciated the farming efforts being made and the need to migrate from the electricity powered pumps to solar pumping.
“Mon-Chris farm manager says they want to upgrade from electricity water pumping to solar power. We are going to help them upgrade and provide the solution,” he said.
Mr Tang said their visit of the two farms gave them an insight into the status of the agriculture sector in the country saying they are ready and willing to co-operate with the Government and local farmers to improve the industry.
“We have visited two farms so far and we appreciated that agriculture is the key economic activity in Zimbabwe,” he said. “We realised that we can improve the agricultural output of this country and also the value in the future.”
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement director Dr Conrade Zawe hailed the Chinese delegation for coming to Zimbabwe on the familiariastion tour and seek ways to cooperate and provide technical support.
“We know that Lesso is a big company in China that is manufacturing irrigation pipes, irrigation technologies, like drips, like solar pumps,” he said.
“What we are doing is that we want to show them the system that we have in Zimbabwe so that we can find how we can work together to improve our farming.”
Dr Zawe said the Chinese visit will benefit the country immensely as they have shown great interest to help revamp struggling sector.
“The visit by the Chinese for an example, the first site we visited, we have realised that we can upgrade our filtering system, upgrade our drip system,” he said.
“We can also change the pumping system to solar so that we can be more reliable given the erratic electricity supply obtaining in the country.”
Dr Zawe said migrating from electricity to solar pumping system will see farming production being more sustainable.
Today the delegation is expected to visit President Mnangagwa’s Precabe Farm in Sherwood, Kwekwe.
Online Reporter