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Thupeyo Muleya

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A massive citrus project is taking shape at the integrated Zhovhe Farm some 70km west of Beitbridge town were over 230 000 orange trees have been planted on 800 hectares and the first harvest is expected next year.

Toppick Investments, a local company which owns the farm, is targeting to increase the number of trees planted.

The company has set up a highly integrated farm utilising water from one of the country’s 10 biggest water bodies Zhovhe Dam.

Toppick Investments chief executive officer, Mr Danisa Moyo said they imported most of the propagating material in batches from South Africa.

“We have planted 230 000 trees on 800 hectares. The area covered so far is divided into five phases,” he said.

“These include, Phase 1, with 180 hectares planted in April 2021, Phase 2 covering 220 hectares planted in November 2021, Phase 3 covering 60 hectares and the trees were planted in February 2022.

“The fourth and fifth phases covering 280 hectares and 60 hectares were planted in August last year.”

Mr Moyo said they had also planted lemon trees on 80 hectares.

He said they were able to create 380 jobs for permanent and casual workers under the citrus project. The employees are mostly women and the youth from villages adjacent to the farm. 

He said they were expecting their first harvest in 2024 from the 50 000 trees which were planted under phase of the project. 

 “So far, we have planted orange trees of the Benny Valencia, Turkey, and Midnight varieties on 700 hectares. In terms of lemons we have the eureka specie,” said Mr Moyo. 

He said they will introduce more citrus varieties in the near future, adding that they had installed a micro jet citrus irrigation system.

Additionally, the company is also planting wheat, maize, soya beans, tomatoes, and groundnuts in other sections of the farm.

Mr Moyo said they were looking at producing more citrus products for both the local and export markets.

“We are looking at setting up a solar power plant to augment power supplies, since we have also been affected by long hours of load shedding which affect irrigation,” he said.

 The organisation also intends to construct a modern sorting shed for grading the citrus products before taking them to the market.

At the moment, they upgraded their electricity transformer from 315kv to 1000kv.

Since starting operations around 2015, the company has acquired 17 irrigation pivots to enhance crop production throughout the year.

Citrus production has been growing gradually in Beitbridge district with the small holder farmers introducing it at their communal irrigation project some 100km south west of the border town in 2011.

The 189 communal farmers at the irrigation-driven citrus project are now producing an average of 700 tonnes of oranges per season to supply the Schweppes Holdings-run Beitbridge Juice Plant (BBJ).

It is understood that the fruits are being sold at the local juice factory at between US$0.15 and US$0.19 per kg

Additionally, three schools in Ward 8, including Shashe primary and secondary and Mopani primary are part of the project.

The schools have an average enrolment of 300 pupils. -@tupelo