Story by Tafara Chikumira, Midlands Bureau
PUBLIC Private Partnerships are yielding positive results with ARDA Fair Acres in Silobela, having put close to 500 hectares under wheat and barley this season.
The estate which is jointly run by ARDA and Northern Farming has set a target of a minimum of nine tonnes per hectare from the winter wheat crop through practising best farming practices.
“Here, because of the nature of the soils, we are practising zero tillage. This is why you see a good crop with less cost. One of the best ways of practising farming is to do some soil tests,” noted ARDA Fair Acres farm manager, Mr Jeremy Vonny.
“As you can see, this crop is looking healthy because we also put basal fertilisers and we alternate with soya beans that we plant soon after rains. If you want to make money in wheat you just need to use less costs so that you attain huge overheads,” he added.
The government is impressed by the progress at Fair Estates, with farmers being urged to utilise the expertise at the irrigation scheme to boost production.
“What we are witnessing at this farm is quite impressive. The farmer is maximising production which is a way to go if we are to achieve our Vision 2030. I want to urge farmers especially those from surrounding areas to come for exchange programmes at this farm,” said the deputy minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Honourable Davis Marapira.
“They might come, say for a week and get a full understanding of what we mean when we say best agronomic practices. This will help them to acclimatise with the latest technology being applied here,” Honourable Marapira added.
With a target of putting 9 000 hectares under wheat this season, the Midlands province is confident of achieving the objective with farmers focusing on doing even better.
“Some of our farmers received their inputs and combine harvesters a bit late but we are hopeful to reach the target. We are very grateful to the Presidential Input Scheme which was targeting mostly the irrigation schemes that got inputs on time. However, we have schemes that are sitting on inputs due to lack of machinery,” said Agricultural Rural Development Services provincial director, Mrs Madeline Magwenzi.
“We hope some of the challenges will be addressed as we want to achieve our targets. As I am speaking to you, we have individual farmers who have since planted over 700 hectares of wheat already. This means our target is very much achievable,” she went on.
The country has set a target of 90 hectares for wheat this season, up from 78 hectares last year, with the bulk of the increase in hectarage expected from irrigation schemes that have been revitalised through government support.
