WATCH: The other side of Esidakeni: Farmer invests US$250 000

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

NOT deterred by the ongoing Esidakeni Farm ownership battles that are playing out in court, a local farmer who is part of the 16 beneficiaries at the farm has invested over US$250 000 on his 50-hectare piece of land and is expecting handsome profits from his potato plant.

Mr Lovemore Mpofu, who locals call Msimanga is expecting a yield worth US$2 million from the potato crop which he has already begun harvesting. The 554-hectare Esidakeni Farm has been a subject of court battles after it was gazetted for distribution by the Government. 

The Government, under the land reform laws, compulsorily acquired subdivision A of subdivision B of Umguza Block measuring 195,8095 hectares and subdivision C of Umguza block measuring 358,8095 hectares, the two blocks forming Kershelmar (Esidakeni) Farm in Nyamandlovu.

However, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) director Mr Siphosami Malunga and his two business partners, Mr Zephaniah Dhlamini and Mr Charles Moyo, are contesting the compulsory acquisition arguing that they bought the farm at a public auction in 2016.

Mr Mpofu who are among those who benefited has, however, not been deterred by the negative publicity generated by the court challenge and has instead directed his efforts towards turning his 50 hectares into a productive venture which has seen him create employment for over 150 locals and has also engaged the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services that provides at least 65 inmates a day, to work on the farm.

In an interview at his farm on Friday, Mr Mpofu said when he started work at the farm, the trio ignored him as they felt the piece of land that he had been allocated was not productive as he had got virgin land.

“I was actually the first beneficiary at this farm, in fact, Mr Dlamini was ploughing at part of my allocated land and when I had finished clearing, I just informed them that I will also be moving into the piece which they had encroached into and they had no problem at all. We moved into the farm on 4 June 2021, I must emphasise that this was virgin land without any development and already we have drilled two boreholes at a cost of US$16 200, installed a generator valued at US$15 000 because we have a large operation and would not want to be disturbed by power cuts. We also have installed electricity where we bought a transformer for US$5 800 and paid the company, we contracted US$4 300,” said Mr Mpofu.

The farmer said his plan was all about pushing productivity which had seen him grow to be a major supplier to most major supermarkets in the country less than a year since he started planting.

“I spent five months patiently preparing this area, this was a bush and I think I was the laughing stock because no one would have thought this land would have this potential, even Mr Malunga and his partners just dismissed me. However, for some of us, we viewed this as a business and I can tell you considering the entire infrastructure, the land preparation and the potato and tomato plant, we have channelled in just over US$250  000 and counting because we are dealing with a high value crop like potato that requires about US$6  000 a hectare just for planting,” said Mr Mpofu.

He, however, revealed that of the 10 hectares which he had planted tomatoes some of them had been affected by the Tuta absoluta pest which had seen the tomatoes not up to standard for commercial disbursement.

“We have 10 hectares of tomatoes and 12 hectares of potatoes, we had managed to harvest a majority of our tomatoes before some were affected by Tuta absoluta. We have now begun the potato harvest after which we will then plant maize, in terms of the crop rotation cycle, which we will use for our cattle pen feeding project where we have a herd of over 700. On the potato harvest, we begun this (last) week where on the first day we sent out 285 pockets into the market, on day two we had 480 pockets, day three; 687 and day four we had 836 pockets, our market is basically all the major supermarkets in the country and we will soon be spreading to the region because our produce is top grade,” said Mr Mpofu.

He said in the coming year they were pushing that they have at least 45 hectares of the allocated piece of land under plantation with the remaining five hectares being left for the construction of their homestead.

“The farm is entirely under drip irrigation with all the necessary pipes and valves, we are also working on a sprinkler system all in ensuring that we improve our yields. We want to use as much as possible of our allocated land in production and even push the employment figure of locals from the current 150 to even as much as 400.

“By April 2023 we actually anticipate that we would have planted 45 hectares of the 50 hectares we have with five hectares left for our homestead,” said Mr Mpofu.

The farm manager, Mr Tonderai Musara, a crop science graduate from the Lupane State University said the success story of their project should show university graduates in the country that they could use their qualification to aid the nation’s development.

“It is exciting to put what I learnt into practice. One thing I noted is that this area’s soils do not adapt to every crop but there is a need to pay particular care towards your crops so as to increase your yield. I am happy that we are finally realising what we set to achieve when we first embarked on the project in 2021 and fortunately come 2023 with us planting the entire 45 hectares, we will be surely reading like a true success story,” said Mr Musara.