Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter
DIVERSIFIED agro-processor and manufacturer of oils, United Refineries Limited (URL) is trebling hectarage under soya bean out-grower scheme from 2 500 hectares grown last year to 7 500.
The initiative is meant to scale up the production and processing of cooking oil in the country in the process to reduce shortages, which are compounded by the limited availability of foreign currency required to import soya beans and crude oil.
Soya bean is a key raw material for URL, which produces cooking oil and stock feed.
In an interview, URL chief executive officer Mr Busisa Moyo said they have incorporated sunflower targeting women in agriculture by introducing rain fed crops.
“We are right in the middle of it, and we are looking at multiplying the hectares of what we did last year for soya farmers, but we have also started sunflower, particularly targeting women.
“Sunflower is a suitable oil seed and is a rain fed crop, which is suitable for dry land farming,” said Mr Moyo.
“We are also looking into cotton production for the next season. So, the whole intervention of value chain integration is something that is topical with us. We started this journey way back and we continue to grow and our farmers are very loyal and we managed to secure some good farmers.”
The out-grower scheme is in its sixth-year, having started in 2018 targeted 15 000 ha with a yield of 30 000 tonnes of soya bean in that period.
URL’s crushing capacity for soya beans is 80 000 tonnes per month and farmers were guaranteed markets for their produce.
Mr Moyo said with their value chain integration they are able to monitor quality and improve efficiency and eliminate middlemen.
They buy directly from the farms.
However, Mr Moyo said funding constraints are limiting their plans to engage more farmers who have shown a keen interest in the out-grower scheme.
To mitigate that, innovative ways to finance more farmers in the coming season have to be explored, said Mr Moyo.
He said there is a need for partnership to transform agriculture and scale up production and appealed for favourable interest rates, which will encourage farmers to borrow large amounts of money for the growth of the agriculture sector. — @SikhulekelaniM1
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter