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George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
Rural communities in the usually dry Chiredzi and Chivi districts have received a major food security boost from Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) which is spearheading production of traditional grains under contract farming, with over 500 villagers set to benefit this year.
GZU is promoting production of traditional grains in the two drought-prone districts as part of the university’s drive to be a hot spot for nagging challenges afflicting communities around it.
The drive to promote traditional grains production is also being done in line with the rural industrialisation drive.
Besides contracting rural farmers to grow traditional grains such as sorghum, millet and rapoko, the university is also the market for the produce which is then value-added at the institution’s processing plants.
Plans are at an advanced stage to open a grain milling plant at the GZU’s International Centre for Innovation in Dryland Agriculture housed in Chivi that will process and value add produce under contract farming.
The first phase of the value-addition initiative has already kicked-off, with GZU having opened retail points where value-added traditional grains products such also mealie-meal will be sold.
GZU’s director of information and public relations Mr Anderson Chipatiso said the institution was angling to take traditional grains production in arid parts of Masvingo to the next level.
Mr Chipatiso said they were also aiming to boost incomes of rural households and their nutrition while also creating value-addition platforms that would snowball into empowered communities as Zimbabwe pursues Vision 2030.
“This year we are targeting to contract over 500 rural farmers in both Chiredzi and Chivi who will grow traditional grains such as rapoko, millet and red sorghum,” he said. “It is important to note that these communities are in traditionally very dry districts that receive scanty rains annually, but we want to incentivise them to grow traditional grains that thrive in their areas and that way we are not only making them food secure, but also boosting their incomes.
“Last year we contracted 230 communal farmers in the two districts and this year we decided to double because our goal is to give impetus to government’s rural industrialisation agenda. We will not only contract the communal farmers to grow the traditional grains but we also buy the produce and value-add it. In a fortnight we expect to take delivery of key components of our milling plant that will be housed at the International Centre for Innovation in Dryland Agriculture.’’
GZU, according to Mr Chipatiso, wanted to make traditional grains production attractive and help restore its yester year glory, noting that the university would come up with interventions to make it less labour-intensive to tend to traditional grains.
“The traditional grains contract farming programme is an initiative by GZU to achieve a number of objectives chief among them to incentivise farmers in dryland regions to grow crops with guaranteed good harvests particularly under the current dispensation characterised by climate change that is making weather patterns more unpredictable,” he said.
“We hope that our initiative ensures food security as communities in arid areas will stop producing non-compatible crops like maize.
“It also important to note that under our contract scheme rural communities’ sources of income are broadened because farmers are provided with inputs and assisted with technical support and fact that the university buys all the produce means their income is guaranteed.’’
GZU has also been leading the race in boosting sugar cane output in the Lowveld after the institution introduced diploma programmes for farmers in sugar production to sharpen their knowledge and increase average yield per hectare.
Under Government’s 5.0 education model, universities have been designated as hot spots for solutions to community problems, in sync with Vision 2030 which envisions an empowered upper middle income society in Zimbabwe by that year.
Online Reporter