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Tapuwa Mashangwa
IN today’s world of fast changing technology dynamics, agriculture is being shaped into a sector that requires one to be constantly conversant with new developments. Each new invention or technological application means that the gross margins in farming are increasing.

Many farming and non-farming individuals say acquirement and the application of these technologies is expensive, which is true. However, the fact is that technological advancement simultaneously increases productivity and profits thereby balancing the costs that be required as investment in any agricultural project.

Moreover, the cumulative cost of avoiding technological advancement on the farm is actually more expensive than acquiring the high tech inputs. The key phrases for success can be summed up in the acronym, RUKIA: Read, Understand, Know, Innovate and Apply.

Frankly, the issue of costs frustrates any business sector. The issue of cost has always frustrated farmers from the beginning of subsistence and commercial farming. First of all the truth that we must accept is that agribusiness is a costly affair.

No matter how many times or how this can be sugar coated the fact that to make money one has to spend or sacrifice will never change.

As Emerald, one of the key differences we have noticed between commercial and non-commercial agribusiness farms is that commercial farmers are willing to use costly hybrid seeds for their crop/plant production systems whilst non-commercial agribusiness farms rely on non-hybrid seeds that tend to have low yields per hectare therefore translating to lower profits margins.

For this same reason hybrid seed using farmers usually can afford to decrease the price of their produce, break even plus make profits whilst non-hybrid using farmers cannot afford to do so as they would make losses.

For those unfamiliar with what hybrid, genetically modified and heirloom plants/seeds are, a hybrid plant is created under the deliberate usually scientifically monitored cross pollination (cross-pollination is a natural process transpiring within members of the same plant species) of two different varieties of a plant with the goal of producing an offspring, or hybrid, that contains the best traits of each of the parents.

According to an article titled, What is an heirloom-what is a hybrid, <https://bonnieplants.com/library/what-is-an-heirloom-what-is-a-hybrid/>, pollination is carefully controlled to ensure that the right plants are crossed to achieve the desired combination of characteristics, such as bigger size or better disease resistance.

The process of developing a hybrid typically requires many years. The benefits of hybrids is that produce and plants possess positive characteristics for example: dependability, less required care, early maturity, higher yield, improved flavour, specific plant size, and/or better disease resistance.

Genetically modified seeds or plants result from the non-natural DNA alteration of plants by scientists, a process that can involve the introduction of genes from other species.

The health effects of these plants on humans and animals is yet to be identified as they have only been discovered recently and only over time can their true health effects become evident.

Heirlooms are typically 50 years old, and are often pre-World War 2 varieties. Most heirlooms come from seed that has been handed down for generations in a particular region or area, hand-selected by gardeners for a special trait.

Others may have been developed by a university a long time ago (again, at least 50 years), in the early days of commercial breeding.

All heirloom vegetables are open-pollinated, which means they’re pollinated by insects or wind without human intervention. In addition, they tend to remain stable in their characteristics from one year to the next.

In conclusion hybrids and GMOs produce is of high yields per hectare and the crop that is uniform in both appearance and timing whilst heirloom produce vegetables may produce a “mixed bag” harvest.

*Tapuwa Justice Mashangwa, Group CEO Emerald International Consortium, CEO Emerald Agribusiness Consultancy based in Bulawayo and Harare. He can be contacted on +263 771 641 714 and email: [email protected]