The Sunday News
Sunday News Reporters
THE Government has set in motion a programme that will see all secondary schools with access to water bodies start irrigation schemes and produce food to cater for the school feeding programmes.
Excess produce from the irrigation schemes will also be sold on the open market to boost national reserves.
As such, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has entered into a partnership with a local accounting firm, C&J Accounting and Secretarial, to set up irrigation facilities in schools around the country as part of efforts to strengthen the national schools feeding programme.
Dubbed the Zimbabwe Schools Water and Agriculture Project (ZIM-SWAP), the partnership aims to equip schools to produce food for consumption, with excess going to the open market.
In an interview, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Professor Paul Mavhima said the project had already been piloted at Alabama primary school in Mashonaland West province and proved feasible. Prof Mavima said the project, which will be implemented in phases, will initially target secondary and high schools before being rolled out to primary schools.
“Brazil has successfully used a comparable programme. Pilot projects have already indicated that this will be a viable programme. The project will be implemented in phases, starting with secondary schools before moving to primary schools.
“The firm will work with schools to ensure that the pieces of land give decent produce at the harvest of each crop for costs to be recovered during a period of three years. We are now looking at publicising the project so that interested schools will get in touch with C&J to access the loans,” he said.
Under the deal, C&J Accounting will provide funds to drill boreholes, install pumps, solar panels, tanks, drip irrigation equipment and fish ponds in schools, while schools will provide land. Schools that have access to water bodies will have overhead irrigation facilities set up.
The accounting firm will also provide technical expertise throughout the entire value chain, from setting up the irrigation facilities, implementing the agricultural projects, and securing markets for schools to sell their produce. Benefiting schools will be expected to repay the loans over three years.
Under the partnership, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, through the provincial education directors (PEDs) and district schools inspectors, will monitor implementation of the project at all participating schools.
“This project can have a great impact on the agriculture sector. Imagine if all the 3 000 or so secondary schools that we have are each to have three hectares committed to agriculture we are looking at more than 20 000 hectares under crop. Imagine the impact that could have in terms of productivity,” he said.
Prof Mavhima added that the project was also expected to be critical in the transfer of skills to learners. The Government launched the national schools feeding programme in July to provide supplementary feeding to schoolchildren in light of the food shortages affecting most parts of the country. The food is provided by Government. The programme targets about 4,2 million learners from the country’s 8,651 schools.
