Sydney Mubaiwa in Chiredzi
The winter maize project  in Triangle is  this year expected to yield nearly 1 500 tonnes.

The harvest is expected to ease food shortages across Masvingo following a poor summer cropping season last year.

Harvesting of maize under the project, a partnership between Lowveld sugar producer Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe (THZ) and Masvingo Development Trust, is expected to start in two weeks.

The Government has since hailed Tongaat for embarking on the project, amid calls for its expansion to produce more food under irrigation in view of recurrent droughts caused by climate change.

Tongaat embarked on the winter maize project under the Smart Agriculture programme to cushion the province in the event of drought.

Acting Masvingo provincial Agritex officer Mr Aaron Muchazivepi yesterday said the initiative was part of the sugar manufacturing company’s corporate social responsibility to the community.

He said the programme, which has created a lot of job opportunities, deserved to be expanded to cover other crops like soya beans, sugar beans and wheat.

“As a province, we must always try to adapt to climate change, which continues to affect us on a daily basis,” he said.

“We want research to be done to see whether it is feasible to grow soya beans and wheat here in the Lowveld. Companies like Tongaat Hullet deserve Government support because they are helping our people.

“This philanthropic gesture should be commended since it is going to help Masvingo Province,” he said.

“This winter maize project started long back after the 1992 drought, and Government had to engage Tongaat to help by experimenting whether it was possible to grow winter maize on their cane plots and the initiative was a resounding success as we expect more than 1 000 tonnes of the staple crop this year,” he added.

He said several agricultural research stations in the Lowveld were supposed to up their game and identify crops which can be grown in the arid area to boost Masvingo’s food security through irrigation.

“We are satisfied that Tongat Hullet has the potential and capacity to make a genuine contribution in irrigation farming that can sustain the province, and we are calling those with irrigation facilities to up their game and utilise fully the available natural resource to enhance food security,” he said.

He said Masvingo was home to many underutilised dams that could be exploited to produce food and cash crops under irrigation in the Lowveld. Mr Muchazivepi said recurrent food shortages should be a thing of the past in the province, which has the highest dam density in the country.

President Mnangagwa visited the site where 327 hectares were put under maize in November last year.