The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) is working on intensifying its rural development mandate as it seeks to uplift the livelihoods of communities in remote areas enabling them to contribute immensely to the growth of the country’s economy, an official said.
Speaking during a tour of Arda Estates in Matabeleland North Province last week by the authority’s board members, board member-operations chairperson Engineer Sam Gomba said much has been done towards reviving productivity at their agricultural enterprises over the last few years but not much has been done with regards to transferring the requisite skills to transform farming in surrounding communities.
The Arda board members and officials toured Jotsholo Estate in Lupane, Balu Pecan Nut and Livestock Estate in Umguza and Sedgwick Livestock Estate in Tsholotsho.
“The rural development mandate must be at the forefront. Over the last five years or so we expected our partners to first of all bring the business ethos into the estates or farms that we superintend on behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe, that’s on the agricultural side and then equally of importance if not more is the rural development aspect, we want our partners to influence the communities around them so that they learn the modern techniques of agriculture for productivity and of course feeding into the rural development and food security mandate of Government,” he said.
Eng Gomba said in the case of Arda Jotsholo, there was a need for the authority’s partner to impart to communities within its vicinities the requisite cropping expertise to improve their productivity, making reference to the nearby community irrigation scheme, Tshongogwe, which has over the years been struggling to attain meaningful production.
“We visited Jotsholo Estate, it was so apparent that the quality of the crop at the Estate was like in a different world, super crop of soya beans and maize but just next to them the quality of the crop in the communities is wilting. Just downstream where the Arda Estate is, there is Tshongogwe Irrigation Scheme, while the partner is doing very well here Tshongogwe is actually not operating. So we want the partner to go in and assist Tshongogwe so that they can also go on and perform as the partner is doing,” said Eng Gomba.
Arda Jotsholo was revived in 2016 through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the authority and Jopa Investments (Private) Limited after over a decade of under-performing.
A total of 500 hectares is being cultivated and put under cereal production, soya and horticultural produce with the partner also rearing cattle and pigs at the farm.
The estate has the capacity to crop 1 000 hectares but water challenges have hampered the investor from utilising the entire arable land.
Eng Gomba also said there was a need for rural communities to be imparted with water harvesting techniques or to harness water from various sources within their areas for irrigation purposes in light of climate change, which has negatively impacted on the rainfall pattern.
“We want our people to know the importance of water that is passing through them. God has already given us the natural resource (water), but our communities are not yet fully aware as to how much they can utilise the resource for their economic benefit and that of the country. Government is now speaking about devolution, empowering communities where they are. So these are the resources, which we are saying communities must identify and how best they can make use to benefit of our people,” he said.
Eng Gomba further said the authority would also ensure its partners participate in improving the quality and numbers of the national cattle herd since livestock plays a pivotal role in the country’s economy.
“Most importantly we are saying to our partners, they should be able to sell in the case of cattle, the improved genetics to our local communities to improve the quality of the national herd. There is a lot of inbreeding at most rural communities in the country and the breeds are getting smaller and smaller,” he said.
Through embracing the PPP model, Arda has managed to turn around the prospects of virtually all its estates dotted around the country, most of which were on the verge of collapse while others had since ceased operations.
“When the PPPs model was approved by Government as Arda we were already implementing it because we realised that we don’t have resources to turn around these estates from where they were. We also realised that we are falling short in terms of skills and thirdly we realised that we don’t have the technology. Now through PPPs we have managed those aspects and want to consolidate them as they are and the partners are helping us to harness them,” said Eng Gomba.
He, however, said there was a need to put in place measures to ensure the estates’ going concern upon the lapsing of the PPPs’ tenures.
“As partners pay their dues at the end of every quarter or at the end of every year, we are saying to our management, they must put aside a certain amount of resources, preparing for the eventual expiration of the contracts so that management has got the resources. Our management has also planted our managers who are representing Arda interests in those estates, so that these managers learn the modern skills and part of the deal with our investors is the retention of technology — when the investor eventually goes at the end of term that is agreed on. They shouldn’t remove the high-tech equipment,” said Eng Gomba.
