Use farming land productively

Beneficiaries of the land reform programme should be inspired by farmers like Mrs Pamela Rauch and her husband Richard of Bulilima district and Mr Obert Chinhamo of Esigodini who are fully utilising the land.

These farmers have demonstrated that Zimbabwe has the potential to reclaim its status as the food basket of Southern Africa within a short period of time.

The farmers are among those that have taken heed of the Government’s call to fully utilise this finite resource to improve the people’s livelihoods.

They have shamed doomsayers who have been criticising the country’s land reform programme.

Mr and Mrs Rauch are into dairy farming and are producing 3 000 litres of milk a day and are said to produce the cleanest milk in the country.

The couple is milking 190 cows and are working on increasing the figure to 250 cows producing 4 000 litres a day.

The owners of Sedgemoor Dairy Farm, Mr and Mrs Rauch supply Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited with milk every two days.

The farm is also contributing to the rebuilding of the national dairy herd by supplying heifers to Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited.

Mr Chinhamo is the owner of Biano Farm and has 300 Simmentals at his 80- hectare farm.

The Simmental breed of cattle is rare in the country and Mr Chinhamo is the only farmer in the southern region breeding Simmentals.

The breed, which originates from Europe, has very high returns as the average weight of a beast is about 500 kilogrammes compared to the average weight of other breeds which is about 150kg.

Mr Chinhamo said farmers do not need large tracts of land to be productive and he has proved this by keeping about 300 beasts on his 80-hectare farm where he is also growing crops to feed the cattle.

 

The Government has challenged farmers to produce not just enough for the nation’s consumption but even surplus for export.

Farmers like Mr and Mrs Rauch as well as Mr Chinhamo seem to have taken heed and we call on other farmers allocated land under the land reform programme, to emulate them.

Government on its part has been supporting farmers through farm mechanisation, modernisation and provision of reliable energy supplies to ensure maximum production.

More than 300 000 families were allocated land, some in prime farming areas that used to be a preserve of white commercial farmers and therefore each and every farmer allocated land should strive to be productive.

Farmers have an obligation to produce not just enough for national consumption but also surplus for export so that the country earns the much needed foreign currency.

Individuals who got land for speculative purposes have no business to be on the land and should be removed.

Land, as already stated, is a finite resource which should only be allocated to committed and dedicated farmers so that the nation benefits.

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