The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga, Senior Farming Reporter
TERTIARY institutions should partner with local farmers and agriculture related entities to address the food and nutrition cluster of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (Zim Asset), an official said.
Speaking after a tour of the Arda Antelope Estate in Maphisa on Wednesday, Lupane State University Vice Chancellor Professor Pardon Kuipa said the institution was embarking on various initiatives to generate extra revenue as per Government directive.
“Government has been pushing universities to start making their own money so we are creating enterprises to generate the extra income and supplement revenue from tuition. One way of doing so is through partnerships with already established businesses,” said Prof Kuipa.
He said LSU had approached the Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (Arda) on a business partnership level as well as on the academic front to benefit the university’s students who are studying crop and animal related courses.
“We offer crop science as well as animal sciences and due to the fact that we are still operating from Bulawayo and we do not have a farm as a university, we needed a partner for our students to have a full practical component to the theoretical training.
By partnering Arda at their Jotsholo farm which is nearest to us, we will also be able to expose our students to real life farming activities,” said Prof Kuipa.
Prof Kuipa said on the agriculture front, the country was exploring new technologies from countries like Malaysia and South Korea as evidenced by the use of centre pivots for irrigation at Antelope estate and that for these technologies to be adapted locally, academics were essential in the process.
He said the staff at LSU was willing to share its theoretical knowledge.
“As partners, farming also requires inputs and when that time comes, as an institution we will approach institutions like Agribank for funding as it is their mandate to finance agriculture related activities,” he said.
Prof Kuipa applauded Arda on the work the authority had done in Matabeleland saying they had shown that with the right type of irrigation and expertise, it was possible to grow anything in the arid regions.
Antelope estate had 425ha of winter wheat and is at the moment preparing 600ha of summer maize crop.
“We never thought it was possible to grow wheat in Matabeleland but evidence on the ground shows otherwise. This is also the reason why we are lobbying for the Zambezi water project so that we can see a replication of such irrigation activities and so that communities surrounding such projects can develop,” Prof Kuipa said.
Speaking on other revenue generating projects the university is planning on undertaking next year when the first phase of students moves to the campus in Lupane, he said the institution would operate a sawmill to process wood and well as the manufacture of furniture.
He said teak and hard wood were abundant in the Mat North region hence venturing into furniture making would benefit them.
Arda board chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza said the relationship between Arda and LSU was mutually beneficial. He said research was critical in the development of agriculture.
Mr Nyabadza said Arda needed a permanent partner to assist from the academia side on the ideal business model to address challenges.
He added that it was important for students to be exposed to the practical side of agriculture by having site visits. According to Arda, the programme is meant to benefit farmers with limited resources to extract value from the land.
“‘Arda retains confidence from strategic domestic investors who share a common vision to invest in agriculture for the good of our economy. We require, under the First Phase at least 25 000 hectares of irrigable land starting with the 2016 winter cropping season. Arda is targeting to grow three crops, maize, wheat and soya beans. The three crops including livestock will be grown under a Market-led Production Model.
Arda will buy back the entire produce for value addition, under a tolling facility business model,” said Arda.
