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THE Agricultural and Rural Development Authority has commended the response by domestic players in its call for Public and Private Partnerships in its turnaround initiatives to increase productivity in all its estates countrywide. Arda chairman, Mr Basil Nyabadza, said of late all its estates dotted around the country were no longer idle with feasible revival plans and joint ventures in place to increase productivity.
“PPPs are the cornerstone of ARDA’s development and in every province we are driving partnerships in all our estates. I am particularly impressed by domestic players who have taken up opportunities in ARDA. We are currently working with a local investor on a tomato processing plant in Zvimba and Gwanda, a huge project which will have direct impact on creating a ready market for out-grower farmers,” said Mr Nyabadza.
He said Manicaland, however, still retains the biggest investment for ARDA through its Chisumbanje, Middle Sabi, Katiyo (Mutasa) and Gairezi (Nyanga) and Rusitu (Chimanimani) estates.
He said all the estates were active except Rusitu Estate where plans are already at an advanced stage with investors to re-start citrus fruits farming.
“In Nyanga potato projects are doing well as well as in Middle Sabi where we have our seed cane nursery. In Chisumbanje we actually now want to empower small-scale sugarcane farmers in surrounding areas and give them small tracts of land as our empowerment drive,” said Mr Nyabadza.
At the Katiyo Tea Estate, Arda wants to expand production by an additional 300 hectares as it targets to revive the factory in the medium-term.
Arda had been utilising only 200ha of the estate in partnership with Eastern Highlands Tea.
The initiatives to turnaround the parastatal come in the backdrop of President Mugabe’s pronouncement last Tuesday in his State of the Nation Address where he underscored the importance of transforming parastatals into viable entities to steer economic growth.
President Mugabe said strategies were already in place to reform parastatals and State enterprises to record sustained growth.
“In this regard, Government has now embarked on a programme of parastatals reform which has prioritised 10 strategic State enterprises to urgent attention.
“In each case, specialised audits are to be undertaken and various reform and turnaround options identified. Underlining the importance we accord agriculture, the parastatals reform programme is beginning with the Grain Marketing Board and the Cold Storage Company,” said President Mugabe.
Katiyo Tea was one of the most popular brands on the local market before the company closed down in 2012 due to low volumes. Since dollarisation, Arda has invested $575 million in various projects through public, private partnerships. Arda Katiyo used to employ over 500 employees, but now only employs a little over 50 employees.
To ensure the successful implementation of the transformation of parastatals the President said Government is tightening corporate governance concerns to avoid the high corruption that had encroached most parastatals and State enterprises.
“In the interim, however, and as an important parallel process, Government has also turned the spotlight on Corporate Governance throughout the Public Sector, including across all parastatals and State enterprises and local authorities.
“It is very clear that, over many years, and due to a variety of reasons, the level of compliance with good corporate governance principles at many, if not most, of our parastatals or State enterprises, has fallen to levels well below what might be regarded as even ‘minimally acceptable’,” said President Mugabe.
Online Reporter