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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
Businessman Mr Kudakwashe Tagwirei has opened up on his proposal for Government to start Command Agriculture.

Mr Tagwirei also urged graduates to help develop their rural areas using the knowledge attained at institutions of higher learning.

The founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sakunda Holdings, Mr Tagwirei delivered the keynote address at the 26th Solusi University graduation yesterday.

He said he came up with a proposal to do contract farming in 2015 when he wanted to leave the country.

“I wanted to go to Equatorial Guinea and the man who I was with on the plane, told me about the drought that was coming, El Nino. Thereafter I started thinking and planning for it and a week after I came back, I started planning a strategy. I called my friends and we sat up until 4AM, discussing the drought that was coming.

I did a project proposal for contract farming, which you now call Command Agriculture.

“When we started, no one thought it was going to succeed and no one talked about it,” he said.
Mr Tagwirei said after the success of the programmes the US Agricultural Department commended the country for Command Agriculture.

He said it was surprising that the same government has put him under sanctions.

“However, when the US government saw that I was supporting the Government of the day in Zimbabwe, they then said, he stole US$3 billion. And I was placed on sanctions,” said Mr Tagwirei.

Mr Tagwirei, who is an elder in the SDA church said Government has agricultural programmes in rural areas that graduates can take advantage of.

He said the programmes are not political.

“All of us have a rural home, and those rural homes, Government is drilling boreholes and establishing irrigation schemes. If you decide that you want to be an entrepreneur, go to your rural home, the Government has a programme for you. Do not think politics, think of your rural home. I’m not telling you who to vote for, I’m telling you to think of your rural home,” said Mr Tagwirei.

He urged graduates to work together and start farming projects.
“Do you know that to succeed you don’t have to have this big vision. You start small. We tend to want the big things. In your rural home, you have one hectare and sell that car of yours and put a borehole. You’re educated, you know how to put fertiliser and seed in the ground; you know how much water is needed.

So, you should begin to practice what you have been taught in your rural home.”
Mr Tagwirei said there is no need to have huge tracts of land for one to be a successful farmer.

“If you are said to be a big farmer, in Zimbabwe you must have 100 hectares.

In Israel it’s six hectares, you are called wealthy when you have six hectares. In Zimbabwe, we want 100, 200 or 300 hectares, but what Israel does, is that they come together as a community, and they look for a market for their combined hectares,” said Mr Tagwirei.

He said to the graduates that one day they will face challenges.
“Class of 22 you are going to meet challenges, when you have a vision do not stop, work and look for it. And there’s going to be an American government kind of situation that is going to come to you and tell you that you can’t succeed.

And when they see you succeed, they are going to put sanctions on your life,” he said.

One graduate, Ms Masline Tsamwayi from Murambinda who graduated with a Diploma in Early childhood Education said she was working on establishing a school there.