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Thupeyo Muleya-Beitbridge Bureau
Local company, Toppick Investments, has invested R100 million to expand citrus production at its Zhovhe Farm in Beitbridge, with 277 000 orange trees being planted in the next three years.
The company, which set up a highly-integrated farm at one of the country’s 10 biggest dams, has since constructed a 9km by 500mm pipeline to provide irrigation to boost the new citrus fields and horticulture.
Zhovhe Farm manager Mr Mthulisi Sibanda said they were importing the citrus propagating material in batches from South Africa.
“The new citrus will cover 1 100 hectares and our plan is to plant 277 000 orange trees by 2023,” he said.
“So far, we have planted orange trees of the benny valencia, turkey, and midnight varieties on 700 hectares.
“These are one-and-a-half-years old. We expect to start harvesting in the 5th year.”
Mr Sibanda said planting was ongoing on the remaining 400 hectares.
He said the citrus expansion had opened up job opportunities for over 400 people around Beitbridge district, mainly women and youths.
Additionally, 20 000 lemon trees had been planted and more citrus varieties will be added.
“We are now at the final stages of installing a micro jet citrus irrigation system,” said Mr Sibanda.
“Further, we are also planting wheat, maize, soya beans, tomatoes, and groundnuts in other sections of the farm.”
Toppick was looking at producing more citrus products for both the local and export markets.
To augment power supplies, the company is working on setting up a solar power plant and constructing a modern sorting shed for grading the citrus products before taking them to the market.
At the moment, they have upgraded their electricity transformer from 315kv to 1 000kv.
Since starting operations around 2015, the company has acquired 17 irrigation pivots to enhance crop production throughout the year.
“We expect to start getting returns from the citrus project in the next five years,” said Mr Sibanda.
“Our bigger plan is to also set up a citrus grading plant within the farm and to construct a 750 kilowatts solar plant to augment power supplies at the farm.”
Toppick had opted for orange varieties that do well under Beitbridge’s climatic conditions and these can be harvested for 60 years.
Prior to the latest developments, Mr Sibanda said the company was specialising in other cash crops including wheat, maize, soya beans, groundnuts and livestock production, and fish farming.
In terms of livestock, he said the farm has 1 100 cattle, 385 goats and 460 sheep.
On the fisheries, it has assembled a complete fish hatchery that is supported by 24 floating cages-each with a carrying capacity of 100 000 fish.
An employee at the citrus project Ms Lilian Moyo said: “I am happy that this project has created opportunities for many youths from our area.”
Ms Tatulo Maphosa from Ward 10 said she had been able to take care of her extended family from the salary she was earning from the highly integrated farm.
Mr Emmanuel Banda said: “I have learned a lot working at this farm. Besides improving my general upkeep and my family, I am also gaining experience in a number of farming activities here.”
Online Reporter