By Tendai Chisiri
Godfrey Nkunzani, a beneficiary of the land reform programme has become a force to reckon in the farming sector after partnering with Allan York a seasoned farmer for 3 years, this publication learnt on a field day at Nkunzana farm in Mazowe District, Mashonaland Central Province Thursday.
Coalition of Agricultural Graduates of Zimbabwe ( CAGOZ) held a field day at Nkunzana farm titled National Agriculture Commercialization Field Day with the theme, ” Heads & Hands Together Promoting Commercial Agricultural Transformation”. CAGOZ is assisting land reform beneficiaries with management and technical help in theory and practice.
Guest of honour at the field day, V.P Haritatos , Deputy Minister for Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development said it was an honor to witness this commendable work being done by Allan York and Nkunzani Godfrey in championing the agricultural transformation.
“The President, His Excellency, Dr E.D Mnangagwa, pronounced a Vision for this country to become a prosperous and empowered upper- middle- income society by 2030 which is largely premised on a agricultural growth. To develop a robust agriculture sector capable of turning around and steering Zimbabwe towards Vision 2030, the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy (AFTS) was developed. AFTS , a strong component of the National Development Strategy 1, envision the attainment of a USD8.2 billion agricultural industry by 3025. The agricultural industry has grown by 36.4% to USD 8.1billion in 2021 and the sector might grow by another 10% this year”, said Haritatos in a speech.
He also said the government through the Department of Agricultural Education has established an Enterprenueurship and Enterprise Development Section that aim to promote agricultural production and also match the industrial needs in line with the New Agricultural Education Curriculum 5.0.
ARDA board chairman Ivan Craig applauded the field day as the way to show how production is done at the farm.
He emphasized the need for the youths to be involved in the agricultural sector. “When youths are given funds by the AFC and Women’s bank, they should approach their older relatives for a piece of farming land”, he said. He stressed that most people were waiting to be given land and if one has a project, it becomes alright to be engaged into farming through utilising the available land from their parents or grand parents.
“Our President is an action man through the farming schemes like Pfumvudza and Presidential Input schemes which are becoming fruitful hence the need for farmers to also take action and increase productivity and profitability”, said Craig.
The tour visited parts of the farm. The first visit was at the man- made dam before going to the horticulture part and the maize and soya field with the livestock grazing nearby was the last destination.
Godfrey Nkunzani was elated as he had never dreamed to make it so big in the farming industry. He was just a farmer given a offer letter by the government before partnering with Allan York.
“We made a joint venture in 2016 to 2019 with Allen York our neighbour and now we are doing it alone”, he told the gathering at the dam.
“Because of the dam, we are not producing maize alone but also we are engaged into horticulture due to the availability of water”, he added.
“I stared with 30 fishes in the dam and they are now about 1000 fishes available.We get money because through the irrigation we do to other crops and we fund for other produces”, said Nkunzani. Deputy Minister Haritatos said he will make sure they receive more fishes although he commended Nkunzani for not relying on donations always.
CAGOZ chairman Dickson Kubvakacha was left a happy man as Nkunzani remarked that he was surpassing York in terms of harvests. Nkunzani produced 3.4 tonnes of soybeans recently whilst York on his farm had 2.5 tonnes of soya beans.” This is one of our CAGOZ assisted farms. Our issue is to see and entrench land reform and that land reform beneficiary is a success.
The filed day was attended by government officials, neighbouring farmers and stakeholders like Zimbabwe Technological Support a subsidiary of SIRDC, Zimbabwe Garden Seeds, Agri Seeds, ZimDams, Sino Trucks, ARDS Seeds Pvt Ltd, Delight Foods, Seed-Co, K2 Seeds and Valley Seeds.
News Sport Online 