Zimbabwe requires about 800 000 tonnes of oilseeds.

THE Oilseeds Association of Zimbabwe (OSAZ) has unveiled a $120 million irrigation facility for oilseeds producers to enhance productivity and provide stability to the oil extraction production chain for the next five years.
The funding is provided by Goldsun Science and Technology Company of China, through an agreement signed between OSAZ and irrigation infrastructure experts Lifebrand Agric Services and will see the association placing 20 000 hectares of land under irrigation this season.
Lifebrand Agric Services chief operations officer, Israel Kembo, said the agreement would run for the next five years.
“For the $120 million extended to OSAZ, we are setting up five hectares for every grower and three hectares is strictly for oilseeds and the remaining two hectares for horticultural export crops. We will be contracting farmers to produce chillis and other horticultural crops depending on our export orders,” Kembo said.
For the horticultural crops, 90 percent of the produce is for export and for the oilseeds, the association will first have to fulfil the local market requirements before export.
Zimbabwe requires about 800 000 tonnes of oilseeds. Of this, 300 000 tonnes is from soyabeans and 400 000 tonnes from sunflower. The rest will come from groundnuts and cotton seed.
“For the oilseeds, we will be exporting finished products and not raw oilseeds,” Kembo said.
To set up a five hectare irrigation scheme, it costs between $25 000 and $30 000, hence the need for long term funding for farmers.
“Farmers cannot pay this amount but in this case, they are being guaranteed by Oil Seeds Association. It’s going to be easy for the farmers especially the small-scale farmers considering the association will be providing financial instruments,” Kembo added.
OSAZ chairman, Marshal Masvikepi, said they were also in the process of getting a European Union certification that would give the association access to European markets.
“ This initiative is driven to empower the farmer and help stabilise the nostro balance sheet of the country because a lot of foreign currency will be unlocked through the export facility, considering the fact that the horticultural crops will be produced in winter (off season). The land under horticulture crops can go up to 20 000 hectares,” Masvikepi said.
Horticulture crops to be produced include lentils destined for India, special groundnuts for Singapore, greenhouse tomatoes and peas.
The agreement is also expected to revive sunflower production which dropped to 6 900 tonnes in 2012.
“Sunflowers bring in more money for the farmer compared to any oilseed and it is also a dry-land crop,” Masvikepi added. [email protected]