Chiredzi greenbelt: In pursuit of national food security goals
CHIREDZI district has over the years been well famed for being the sugar producing area of Zimbabwe apart from having one of the largest animal sanctuary in the country — the Gonarezhou National Park.
Unfortunately however, its greater population has been a basket case although this is likely going to change if plans by the Government to transform the district into a greenbelt synonymous with high agricultural productivity are anything to go by.
The district which is one of the seven districts in Masvingo Province lies in the south-east of the country where it borders Mozambique and South Africa. It is in the arid ecological Region V with minimal rains but the red soils are rich hence agricultural activities can only be sustained through irrigation water.
The district therefore has over the years been able through supplementary irrigation water to sustain the country’s sugar needs as well as producing for the export market although little efforts were previously put in place to try other crops other than sorghum that has been the communal farmers’ every year crop because of its drought resistant nature.
By nature of geography however, the district is in the lowveld. And it being in the lowveld also means that most of the country’s notable rivers such as Runde, Save, Chiredzi and Mutirikwi flow past or along the periphery of the district while some even have their confluence in the district. The dictates of natural geography therefore makes it easy to harness water from the rivers for irrigation purposes making the district a little more distinct from others in the same ecological region.
Both natural and anthropological factors have therefore conspired to create an environment that is suitable for agriculture in the region and it now seems unthinkable that the district was at one time devoid of agricultural activity.
And with work at Tokwe-Murkosi Dam going on, the long term plan is, according to Government, to harness more water for irrigation from the dam which by any measure will be the largest inland lake in the country, putting more land under irrigation.
Communities in the Chiredzi district led by their traditional leaders have also taken it upon themselves to make use of the available water bodies in the arid district although their efforts were little complemented by the Government.
Some chiefs in the district such as Chief Tshovani have dug up and sunk boreholes where they use generators to irrigate their crops but generators need diesel which in most cases they do not have. Hunger and poverty therefore have always stalked people in the district religiously like a leopard following a wounded bloody animal spoor making them a perennial charity case.
Chief Chilonga said the Chilonga irrigation was not only too small but not fully functional due to a number of technical problems. The chiefs in the district lamented the drought situation in their communities and called on the Government to intervene urgently to avert any serious consequences of this year’s El Nino induced drought.
The situation is however, set to turn the curve as efforts are in place and at an advanced stage at national level to turn the district into a national food basket through the creation of a greenbelt that is expected to feed not only the people of Masvingo but the population of the country as well. Although this will not be an event but a process it means that Chiredzi will not only become known as a sugar district but an agricultural area from where the country is fed as crops such as maize and all other crops will be grown with irrigation water.
The idea of exploring the agricultural opportunities and potential of Chiredzi as well as creating a greenbelt in the province and making it the agricultural hub was stressed recently by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa during a visit to the Agriculture and Rural Development Agency (Arda)’s Nandi Estate in Chiredzi.
He said the idea was supposed to be pursued with the vigour that it deserves if the country was to move away from food dependency to a food self sufficient as well as retaining it tag in the food security obligation in the regional body Sadc. The Vice-President said the Government was more than ready to fund, resuscitate and improve irrigation schemes in the district to ensure that the pursuance of the national food security dream was done and realised in line with the country’s economic blue print — Zim-Asset under the food security and nutrition cluster. Arda Nandi Estate was revived after a partnership with a private player Mangwa Quip after more than two decades in which it was lying idle and within a year since they started operations, the estate is now up and running. “This kind of partnership is what we need because at the end of the day, what we need is production,” he said. Cde Mnangagwa said Chiredzi could be turned into a greenbelt with the potential to be a bread basket for the region if the land and water bodies in the province were utilised to their full capacity. He said Chiredzi had several water bodies and vast tracts of arable land which if fully utilised could transform the country’s food situation. “The first thing which is required is land and it is available. The second thing is water and the brains, which are also abundantly available. What we need to do as Government is to put in place all the other requirements such as irrigation equipment to ensure that Chiredzi is turned into a greenbelt,” Cde Mnangagwa said.
He said Government was ready to engage farmers who were serious and stressed that it was high time Government implemented the use it or lose it policy to those who have the land but were not fully utilising it as well as those who were holding on to land for speculative purposes.
As a follow up to what Vice-President Mnangagwa reiterated, the Chiredzi community has begun to make serious inroads towards the realisation of the dream with Zimbabwe Sugarcane Development Association (ZSDA) chairman Mr Edmore Veterai saying it was gratifying to note the commitment of the Government in agriculture. He said there was need for a paradigm shift where farmers should start seeing themselves as businesspeople and start treating agriculture as big business.
“We are an agro-based economy and we therefore need to put our efforts on agriculture so that we realise our full potential. Chiredzi has a very big potential, we are a sleeping giant and the time is now to awaken the giant and realise its full potential to sustain the country agriculturally.
“We are happy that the Government through the visit by the Vice-President has expressed its commitment in supporting agricultural initiatives in the lowveld. We have dams that were pegged a long time ago but their development in terms of construction never kicked off while some irrigation schemes are not functional due to multifaceted reasons,” said Mr Veterai.
He added that the people of Zimbabwe should not be seized and more fascinated with politics saying developed countries do not put politics ahead but they put development first.
He called on Government to ensure that funding was made available to implement the plans for the dams that were pegged in the late 1950s so as to double the production of sugar and other crops.
Chiredzi District Administrator Ms Clara Muzenda said it was all systems go for the district as it braces itself for the increased crop production and the greenbelt whose take off, she said, was going to be overseen by the Central Government as promised by the Vice-President. She said the communities were already in dire need of food aid adding that the greenbelt, should it materialise, is going to provide a long term relief to the food security concerns in the district.