Online Reporter
George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
Development of a 30 000 hectare greenbelt at the Nuanetsi Ranch in Mwenezi is progressing according to plan with investors having sunk US$20 million in land clearing and planting sugar cane as Masvingo province intensifies efforts to fully exploit its vast irrigation potential.
Masvingo is home to 54 percent of Zimbabwe’s dammed water with the majority of the large Lowveld water bodies, among them Tugwi-Mukosi, Mutirikwi, Bangala, Manjirenji, Manyuchi, Bindamombe and Muzhwi, available for irrigation.
Under the National Development Strategy (NDS2) that starts this year, the province has an ambitious programme to create an 80 000-hectare green corridor in the Lowveld.
This will make the region a national hub for agro-processing industries to produce stock feed, sugar, ethanol and citrus juice.
These industries will leverage on Zimbabwe’s burgeoning trade relationship with China and other countries where demand for citrus is rapidly growing and would provide a ready and lucrative market for the country’s produce.
China has already put in the health regulations for Zimbabwean citrus exporters, which makes it much easier to build markets since once the standards are set all the Zimbabweans have to do is meet them without any long and interminable arguments.
Government has conceived the Lowveld Integrated Irrigation Development Master Plan that envisages the birth of this huge greenbelt that will spur development of a conurbation stretching from Rutenga to the west right up to Chisumbanje along the Save River in the east.
To date more than 3 000 hectares have been cleared at Nuanetsi by the private investors, who last year signed 25-year lease agreements with the Development Trust of Zimbabwe, to venture into sugar cane, citrus and lucerne production.
The private investors are Lamcent Agriculture, Byword Enterprises, Lyonais Investments, Green Corridors, Mossfield Farms, Zimbrands and Honzero Agro Projects.
Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira was upbeat that the creation of a green corridor at the otherwise largely arid Nuanetsi Ranch was a boon for the growth of Masvingo’s provincial economy.
He noted that growth of the province’s gross domestic product was anchored on the agricultural sector, particularly through irrigation development using underused water bodies.
“We have investors who partnered that Development Trust of Zimbabwe to develop a greenbelt that is 30 000 hectares in extent and these private investors have so far cleared more than 3 000 hectares and sunk more than US$20 million in the project that will have a huge bearing on the Masvingo provincial economy,” said Minister Chadzamira.
“The ongoing works at Development Trust of Zimbabwe will gather momentum now that we have gotten into NDS 2 and the greenbelt will comprise sugar cane, citrus and lucerne plantations.
“The overall target is to create a green belt that straddles over plus or minus 80 000 hectares.”
Minister Chadzamira said that Masvingo was supposed to be the national irrigation hub as the province was home to 54 percent of all the dammed water in the country once Kariba was excluded as its water is reserved for power generation.
That position was set to be emboldened further with plans now at an advanced stage to build Runde-Tende Dam at the confluence of Runde and Tende rivers in Chivi south.
Runde-Tende will surpass Tugwi-Mukosi in capacity, overtaking the latter as Zimbabwe’s largest interior reservoir.
Private investors at Nuanetsi have roundly expressed optimism that creation of a greenbelt in the Lowveld was feasible thanks to the conducive business environment created by the Second Republic under the stewardship of President Mnangagwa.
Lyonais Investments director Mr Lawrence Mahakwa paid tribute to President Mnangagwa for promoting the growth of indigenous businesspeople.
