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Cde Jason Machaya

Wynne Zanamwe, Midlands Reporter
GWERU City Council (GCC) has embraced Command Agriculture after the local authority put 72 hectares of land under maize at the municipality’s Cambridgeshire Farm.

Yesterday, the Minister for Provincial Affairs in the Midlands Province Cde Jason Machaya, the chairperson of the commission running the affairs of the council Mr Tsunga Mhangami and council management toured the farm.

Impressed by the good crop, now at the tasselling stage, Cde Machaya urged other local authorities to emulate GCC.

“I’m so happy with the development here. I want to commend the commission and the management for a job well done. Command Agriculture is a calling and council has responded positively to that calling. Five tonnes per hectare is the minimum requirement for those that are in the programme and I can see that they can surpass that target and get over seven tonnes per hectare,” he said.

Cde Machaya said the positive development was commendable as the local authority was going to earn extra income from farming.

“We are used to city councils not being able to manage small things like beer halls but GCC has managed to tackle this massive project,” he said.

“I want to urge local authorities in this province to emulate Gweru. I want to organise a field day for all local authorities in this province to come and see that it is possible to take up a project like this. Councils must think outside the box at this time we are trying to turn around the economy.”

Mr Mhangami said their farm manager had advised them to expect about eight tonnes per hectare if the crop survives pests and diseases. “We received 100 by 25kg of maize seed, 40 tonnes compound D fertiliser, 30 tonnes AN fertiliser, 6 320 litres of diesel, 70 tonnes lime and some herbicides. The crop which was put under irrigation as you can see is at tasselling stage,” he said.

He said plans were underway to plant wheat in winter on 100 hectares.

@wynnezane