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FARMING solutions firm, Seltag Holdings, has re-entered the local agriculture scene after more than a decade long hiatus, and is eager to apply new expertise and technologies to improve land use and yields to boost Zimbabwe’s food security.

The company aims to assist the Government in its drive to ensure maximum land utilisation in pursuit of a $8.2 billion agriculture industry by 2025.

While the historic Land Reform Programme has succeeded in ensuring that black farmers dominate the local agricultural sector, technical and other services offered by firms such as Seltag come in handy in helping

the resettled farmers realise peak potential of their farms.

Seltag specialises in offering agriculture consultancy services, which include farm siting and evaluation, irrigation design and installation, land usage planning, and building farm infrastructure such as greenhouses among other services.

In an interview with New Ziana, Seltag sales and projects director Selestino Gwenzi said the company started operating in Zimbabwe in 2002, but relocated to South Africa at the height of the hyper inflationary

era in 2009.

But, charmed by the strides made by the Second Republic in agriculture development, the company re-entered the Zimbabwean market early this year to play its part in the ongoing transformation of the agriculture

sector.

“Zimbabwe was once the bread basket of Africa. We still have the same land, and with the relations and partnerships created by Seltag with foreign and international partners, we have access to manufacturers and financial partners who can help us retain our lost glory as a nation,” he said.

“Since we re-opened our local branch beginning of 2022, we are getting new enquiries, leads, referrals and recommendations, which is a good growth indicator,” Gwenzi said.

He said some of Seltag’s solutions for irrigation for example, save water by up to 50 percent, fitting into the current irrigation development thrust being pursued by the government.

Under the thrust, the government has embarked on massive dam construction across the country, with ultimate plans to open at least 50 000 hectares of land per year under an accelerated irrigation development programme.

“We are looking at implementing strategies and solutions, which will enable farmers and the entire agriculture sector to save water and energy, and reduce chemical costs thereby resulting in an increase in profit margins,” he said.

“We also intend to create an online agricultural portal for new and existing farmers to access technical tutorials on various crop production and animal husbandry manuals in partnership with relevant industry stakeholders.”

In the long-run, the company hopes to expand from offering farming solutions only.

“We have since submitted our application to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement to be considered for land allocation under the government’s land redistribution programme to enable us get into active farming of crops such as Soyabeans, Wheat,

Maize so that we become active participants in the food value chain, which will see us expand our business into cooking oil, stock feed and flour manufacturing, with a vision to list on the Zimbabwe stock exchange in the near future,” he said.

The Government has put in place several strategies to uplift agricultural production, with the flagship plan being the agriculture and food systems transformation strategy, which seeks to achieve an $8.2 billion agriculture industry by 2025.

It has said it recognises the pivotal role that the private sector will play in the successful transformation of the agricultural sector.

-New Ziana