Leroy Dzenga Features Writer

When liberation war heroes took arms in the fight for this country’s independence, land was the main question.

Their argument was that economic emancipation would come through land.

So strong was the conviction, it eventually led to the land reform programme which saw black farmers emerge.

One such farmer is 35-year-old Pardon Mhuri, whose farming exploits have become hard to ignore.

Born in a farming family, Mhuri comes from a family of extension officers, Madhumeni as they were called back in the day.

Mhuri who now heads one of the leading tobacco seedlings companies in the country, Mhuri Farm in Karoi, says he knew his life was going to evolve around farming from an early age.

He is a third generation farmer.

“Farming is all I know. My grandparents were extension officers and farmers. They all won awards in their own right, at one time my grandfather won an award for his dairy farm while my grandmother won an award for best groundnuts in the country, the years are now slipping from my memory,” Mhuri said.

His parents too showed equal if not better prowess on the field.

“My mother was an Agritex officer, she taught us basics from an early age. My father at some point was awarded the best Agritex Officer accolade in our province Mashonaland West,” said Mhuri.

His life was centred around farming and this inspired him four years ago to set up his own venture.

Without land of his own, he has created a company employing more than 50 people.

“Four years ago, I decided to start Mhuri Farming, a diverse farming company. Even though we did not have land, which we still do not have, we decided to start,” he said.

They created a structure which has seen them collaborate with land owners.

“We have special arrangements with land owners. I decided not to wait till I have land of my own but to begin working,” he said.

His main area of interest are tobacco seedlings.

“Annually we produce seedlings enough to cover 1 300 hectares of tobacco and we are aiming to produce more. At this point we are not meeting even 10 percent of the demand,” explained Mhuri.

Mhuri added; “We also have about 150 hectares of our own tobacco crop, 500 hectares of maize, 50 hectares of sugar beans and a sizeable portion of horticulture.”

His hope is to expand his horizons beyond Mashonaland West into other provinces.

“We are hoping to get land across the country so we can expand our operations and bring more convenience to farmers who are into tobacco cropping,” Mhuri said.

Currently they are renting more than 1 000 hectares of land, the arrangement works temporarily but makes it difficult for them to grow their wings into other areas.

“We are desperately in need of land, due to the drought we want to put all of our crop under irrigation but it is difficult to install permanent infrastructure like pivots on leased land,” he said.

Farming across the world is changing face, some practices are now victims of time.

Mhuri believes the best approach is to ensure the whole farming industry is not left behind by global trends.

“I think as farmers, we need to do away with old methods, especially when curing tobacco. We now use solar to cure tobacco and that is the best way to do it.

“There is also need to educate our farmers to make sure they obey labour laws on their farms. Children should not work on fields,” he said.

Climate change has hit farming hard and at Mhuri Farm their planning has been affected.

“Climate change has an impact on the quality of the product. The unavailability of water affects nutrients. This year the forecasts had said we will have normal to above normal rainfall but we ended up facing water shortages yet we had planned seed which is not drought resistant,” Mhuri said.

Power challenges have made their lives difficult and alternatives present a similar if not worse headaches.

“If only diesel was expensive it would be a navigable issue, it is also hard to find,” he added.

Mhuri believes Zimbabwean farming has potential if Government provides support to new farmers coming up with new models of farming.

Liberation war heroes who took up arms to actively participate in the war which brought independence will be proud of young Zimbabweans like Mhuri who are showing how the resource can be best utilised.

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