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We are pleased that the private-public partnership initiative has resulted in the revival of 15 Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) farms, nine months after the government engaged partners.Business at 20 of the 22 Arda farms had basically ceased because of the prevailing economic challenges and mismanagement.

Infrastructure on the properties had deteriorated to an unusable state. In these circumstances, there was no way Arda was going to pull itself up the rut.  It needed external support which could have come from the government if the state was not itself struggling for cash.

Therefore, the private sector was the only alternative source of support.

Arda, with 22 farms strategically situated across the country, substantial institutional presence, basic physical farm and produce processing infrastructure and possibly skilled manpower, is an asset of massive potential. The estates measure around 98,000 hectares of which 19,000 ha are irrigable. Apart from growing various crops and rearing livestock, Arda had a strong presence along the agriculture value chain.

So, when the government invited bids for new investment to resuscitate Arda in February last year, a huge response from local and foreign suitors followed. By July, as many as 40 bids had been submitted, seeking to partner Arda in maize, soya bean, tea, livestock, timber, potato and macadamia nut production and processing.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Cde Davis Marapira said the government is pleased with work on the 15 farms and is going to enter into more partnerships to revive the remaining estates this year.

Interviewed during a recent tour of 2,500-ha Fair Acres Estate in Silobela, Midlands Province, Cde Marapira said public-private partnerships were part of long term measures by the government through Arda to get private firms involved in funding agricultural projects.

“We’re reviving more farms this year so that all Arda farms that have been lying idle are used to improve crop production in the country. The government wants to see the estates fully utilised to improve food security,” he said.

Arda, in partnership with Northern Farming, planted 460 hectares of soya beans at Fair Acres Estate. They are mechanising the farm to ensure more extensive and effective utilisation of the land.

In 2009, the government, through Arda partnered Macdom and Rating investments to grow sugarcane for processing into ethanol at Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi in Chipinge, Manicaland.

As many as 5,000 jobs have been created on both farms and many more downstream in ethanol blending and fuel retailing. At the blending ratio applicable in July, ethanol produced at Chisumbanje helped reduce the fuel import bill by 15 percent. Given that the plant generates its own electricity, the country has saved some power that Chisumbanje would have consumed. That saving is being used to power other Zesa clients. We believe the substantial success at Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi, notwithstanding the misgivings the local community has over the project, influenced the government to pursue a national strategy to bring private investors on board so as to breathe new life into the giant parastatal.

We applaud the new phase of the PPP initiative and believe that the positive developments at Fair Acres Estate are indicative of the success at 14 other properties.

When fully implemented, the resuscitation programme would create thousands of jobs and revive local economies through out-grower arrangements and villagers buying produce from Arda for resale. Furthermore, the investment should contribute to greater national food security and economic revival.

The new investment will also play a big role in the attainment of some Zim-Asset goals – infrastructure development, value addition and beneficiation. If Arda and its partners grow more soya beans, rice, potatoes, rice and timber, that would contribute to efforts to reduce the national import bill.

But Arda is not the only struggling public agricultural asset. The Cold Storage Company is big, important and owns large estates in many parts of the country. Like Arda, it needs a big external capital injection. Its abattoirs in Masvingo, Bulawayo and Marondera are now shells waiting for that odd butcher to bring his or her cattle for slaughter. The Botswana Meat Corporation deal under which it used CSC’s Bulawayo facilities to slaughter its stock isn’t significant enough to breathe new life into the former, neither are the rentals it is collecting from livestock farmers leasing some of its farms.

If the PPP model has done well at Chisumbanje, Middle Sabi and Fair Acres, it should do the same at CSC. We are confident there are many investors willing and able to put money into CSC too.

Indeed, CSC derived much of its revenue from exports to the European Union but which were suspended years ago due to illegal sanctions. That point can bother some potential investors, that a market of the size of the EU is not guaranteed.  However, alternative markets can be secured. At the same time, we are hopeful that with the EU generally easing its embargo, it can be willing to consider resuming beef imports from Zimbabwe too.