Arda Jotsholo Estate set to get into full throttle

24 Jul, 2016 - 00:07 0 Views
Arda Jotsholo Estate set  to get into full throttle

The Sunday News

File photo: Ndodana Sibanda shows how a centre pivot irrigation kit works to water a wheat crop at Arda Jotsholo

File photo: Ndodana Sibanda shows how a centre pivot irrigation kit works to water a wheat crop at Arda Jotsholo

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
FARMING operations at Arda Jotsholo Estate will get into full throttle this year, following challenges that have seen operations at the second part of the estate being muted in the last two years.

Arda Jotsholo manager Mr Ndodana Ncube said fencing of the estate’s 300-hectare second block was in progress and expected to be completed before the end of next month, paving way for full utilisation of the estate this year.

The resumption in cropping activities at the estate’s Block II, which has been lying idle for two years owing to a myriad of challenges facing the irrigation scheme, chief among them water and lack of funding, would bring the total area to be cultivated at the irrigation scheme to 500 hectares.

The irrigation scheme is made up of two sections Block I (200 hectares) and Block II (300 hectares). Farming at Arda Jotsholo’s Block I started last year after Arda partnered a Chinese firm, Sinotex Zimbabwe. However, the two parties severed ties after failing to agree on certain terms pertaining to the agreement.

Sinotex Zimbabwe had cropped 103 hectares of cotton on Block I and managed to harvest 58 tonnes. The agricultural institute was to partner new investor, Trek Petroleum trading as Jopa Investments in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement.

Through its PPP arrangement 150 hectares of winter wheat and four hectares of cabbages have been cropped on Block I.

“About 80 people are clearing vegetation around Block II in preparation for the installation of a fence. The fencing material is already on site and we expect to finish fencing the area before the end of August,” said Mr Ncube.

The 150 hectares of wheat cropped on Block I is expected to be harvested in September. About 100 hectares of the crop is at hard dough stage while the remaining 50 is at soft dough stage.

“We are looking forward to harvesting our wheat in September and we expect to be harvesting seven tonnes per hectare on average. After harvesting we are going to put 200 hectares of summer commercial maize on Block I after Zesa removed a power line which cuts across about 50 hectares of the field and installed a new power point.

“We are also going to crop another 200 of 300 hectares on Block II but we are going to irrigate this using the old system, which is the flood system because the centre pivots are yet to arrive but everything is going according to plan and we expect them soon. We are, however, going to delay to start cropping because water levels at our source, the Shangani Weir are at critical levels due to siltation,” Mr Ncube said.

He said the estate would continuously increase its cabbage production up to 10 hectares.

“Our cabbage is at head formation and our target is of cropping 10 hectares by the end of year,” said Mr Ncube.

At its peak the agricultural project used to produce five to six tonnes of maize per hectare and four tonnes of wheat per hectare but the tonnage realised from the production of both cereals started deteriorating from 2012 to about two tonnes per hectare.

Arda also used to crop, process and package rice at its state-of-the-art plant at the estate from the 1990s until 2006.

Twitter:@DNsingo

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