Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter 

THE viability of Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda)-Trek Antelope Estate in Matobo District, Matabeleland South Province, one of Government’s Command Agriculture Programme success stories is under threat owing to unavailability of electricity for close to six months.

Arda Antelope Estate manager Mr Alec Chinyayi told Sunday News recently that the agricultural enterprise has been relying on diesel-powered generators to draw water for irrigation purposes following theft of electricity cables in August last year.

The theft of a 66-kilometre stretch of power cables has not only affected farming activities at the Estate but domestic and commercial activities as well as the health delivery system of the entire district.

“It’s not business as usual so without power our programmes will be in serious distress and astray. Since August last year we have been relying on generators for power thus fuel is very critical to our operations at the moment but can’t sustain our operations throughout the day. So, the Estate has adopted a 16-hour irrigation cycle instead of the usual 24-hour regime. We once tried to run the generators for 24 hours but we realised it was unsustainable,” said Mr Chinyayi.

He said the unavailability of electricity and the prolonged dry spell has forced the Estate to reduce its cropping area.

“The temperatures we have been receiving over the past months have been averaging 36 degrees Celsius and these are not conducive for irrigating especially during the day thus we are now irrigating at night. We have also curtailed our cropping area. Instead of the usual 700 hectares we have left out 160 hectares, thus we have managed to establish 540 hectares because our generators cannot cope with the demand of water at this time of the year,” said Mr Chinyayi.

A total of 255 hectares has been cropped under soya beans with 150 hectares being put under commercial maize, hybrid seed maize (90 hectares) and sugar beans (45 hectares) all at various stages of development.

“Due to this prevailing drought we have also moved 655 herd of cattle from Maphaneni to this farm so that they can be grazing in between the pivots where the graze is much greener because if you move out of the farm you won’t even see a blade of grass. Of late the Estate was blessed with these erratic rains . The most devastative scenario, which was faced by the Estate was on  28 December when we experienced a heat wave, about 34 hectares of our maize crop aborted after temperatures soared to about 41 degree Celsius,” said Mr Chinyayi.

The Estate has managed to clear bushes along the 66-kilometre stretch where the electricity cables were stolen to enable the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company to navigate during their reconnection exercise. It has also offered one of its trucks to ferry ZETDC personnel and components to be used during the reconnection exercise.

Arda Antelope has 3 000 hectares of arable land but only utilises 850 due to low water capacity at its sources, Antelope and Shashane dams, which have capacity to irrigate 1 000 hectares throughout the year. Efforts are being made to bring on Conomara Dam, which is located on the eastern side of the Estate to enable the cropping of 6 000 hectares per year.

The Estate has over the past few years been one of the country’s biggest contributors of maize. Last season the Estate attained its best maize yield ever, which saw it achieving 5 580 tonnes and for its feat it was awarded a floating trophy plus a 65 horse powered tractor under Seed Co 11 Plus Tonne Club competition.

The 11 Plus Tonne Club is an elite club of high achievers especially those who cultivate above 10 hectares of maize. Its objectives are to create a source of social capital, technical capital and to enhance a good competitive spirit exists among farmers.

During the same season the Estate achieved 1 260 tonnes of soya beans and 4 380 tonnes from its 2019 winter wheat in the process failing to achieve its target of eight tonnes per hectare attaining 6,5 tonnes per hectare. 

“Antelope Estate is one of the successful stories of Government’s sponsored agricultural programmes starting from Maguta to Command Agriculture. I think it has set high standards for other agricultural enterprises. It dispelled the notion by some misguided malcontents that all Government’s sponsored agricultural programmes are a flop because when we operated alone as Arda we never attained the yield we do at the moment. You will wonder if this Estate is surely in region five (a predominately dry area with very low annual rainfall),” said Mr Chinyayi.