The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo Senior Farming Reporter
THE Agricultural Rural Development Authority (Arda) is working on re-introducing rice production at its Jotsholo Estate in Lupane District, which was stopped more than a decade ago due to insufficient water supplies for irrigation. Arda board chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza said the parastatal was in the process of engaging the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate and prospective partners to address the challenge of siltation which has affected Arda Jotsholo Weir’s water carrying capacity over the years.
The once 174 000 cubic metre dam was the source of water for the 519 hectare Arda Jotsholo Estate.
“We want to revive rice production but we have a problem of siltation. We need to manage the water so that it is available throughout the year, we are losing a lot of water through siltation. We can also expand to horticulture project. So Jotsholo Estate can do horticulture, cereal cropping as well as dedicated rice production value-adding at site, which is exactly what we want to do under Zim Asset,” Mr Nyabadza said.
Arda used to crop, process and package rice at its state-of-the-art plant at the estate from the 1990s until 2006.
The plant’s driers stopped functioning in 2004 while the polishing equipment ceased two years later.
“The Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate will release some equipment which we will hire for scooping and maintaining the dam. It needs a lot of work and expertise but we have engaged some other players that want to invest. We have highlighted the problem to them but they still want to invest so they will undertake that exercise,” Mr Nyabadza said.
In the meantime Arda has partnered with a Chinese company, Sinotex Zimbabwe to produce cotton seed at the Jotsholo Estate.
“Right now the investor who is there is carrying out limited production of cotton seed but we would like to expand that by bringing back rice production but water siltation remains a challenge.
“First and foremost that estate is anchored on access to water. So once we address that then we can go back to rice production because rice production is about water,” Mr Nyabadza said.
Arda Jotsholo manager Mr Ndodana Ncube said 103 hectares was put under cotton in November last year and harvesting had begun.
“We started planting cotton in November and our initial target was 250 hectares but we started late into the season and we didn’t have adequate water since our dam is facing siltation. We ended up putting 103 hectares. Instead of getting rains early into the season we ended up getting the rains at the end of December and early January and as a result our last crop of 15 hectares didn’t get water,” Mr Ncube said.
He said due to financial challenges the parastatal had to enlist the services of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services to pick the cotton.
“Due to financial constraints we couldn’t afford to pay cotton pickers the 0,50 cents as stipulated by the Cotton Ginners Association thus we had to engage ZPCS.
“The 40 inmates are picking an average of 600 kilogrammes a day and we are expecting another additional 40 inmates and this should see us completing harvesting at the end of August and then we will be able to destroy the stalks by September as stipulated by the law,” Mr Ncube said.
