Thupeyo Muleya-Beitbridge Bureau

Beitbridge District has the potential to earn the country billions of dollars in foreign currency should farming projects visited by Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Anxious Masuka recently be brought to full capacity.

The minister and a team of technocrats from his ministry visited Zhovhe Dam, Toppick Investment’s Zhovhe high-integrated farm, Bishopstone Citrus Estate and Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited’s Beitbridge Juice plant recently.

He was on a mission to assess progress on new and ongoing irrigation development and citrus projects in the area.

Apart from thriving horticultural production, there is also booming citrus production which does well under the agro-climatic conditions in this hot and arid region of the country.

Currently, production levels in the horticulture sector are below five percent and the government is targeting to increase its GDP contributions to 10 percent and above.

In addition, plans are being rolled out to increase the current land covered on citrus, from 4 000 hectares to above 10 000 hectares.

According to agriculture experts, citrus production has shifted from the country’s northern region (Mazowe) to the southern region (Beitbridge), where climatic conditions are very conducive.

Most commercial and small-scale farming activities in Beitbridge West are linked mainly to irrigation water from the 133 million-cubic metres Zhovhe Dam and Umzingwane River.

The dam is one of the 10 biggest water bodies in the country and government has started work on irrigation development and related projects there to fully utilize the water.

Minister Masuka said Zimbabwe and Kuwait have since put together US$35 million for setting up a 2 500-hectare irrigation scheme to have horticulture produce and citrus that should draw water from the dam.

In addition, a 63km canal will be constructed to deliver water to Beitbridge town.

When the dam is at its full capacity, experts say it can give Beitbridge with three years’ supply of water.

It is also envisaged that the new irrigation project will produce citrus for export to Kuwait and benefit more than 5 000 households around the district.

The dam has a great potential for tourism activities following the construction of a lodge in the area and the introduction of boat cruising and fishing by Toppick Investments.

At the moment the dam is being used by Zhovhe high-integrated farm for irrigation and a few fishing cooperatives.

“Agriculture is at the centre of the envisaged Vision 2030 and hence the take-off of the Zhovhe Water Project cannot be delayed any longer,” said Minister Masuka.

“I have given the project team a deadline of September 30, they should submit updated designs and a complete Environmental Impact Assessment report.

“For far too long, people in this dry region have watched the water flowing and flowing into the Indian Ocean without even utilising it to uplift their lives.”

At present, the Zhovhe farm produces horticulture products, wheat, maize, soya beans, groundnuts and is investing US$10 million into citrus production on 1 000ha in the next three years.

In terms of livestock, the farm has 1 047 cattle, 453 goats, and 571 sheep and a fish hatchery.

This is supported by 24 floating cages — each with a carrying capacity of 100 000 fish. At the moment five cages are stocked with 400 000 fish.

Toppick investments chief executive officer Mr Danisa Moyo said they have 200 workers and were expecting to hire more people when the 277 000 orange trees project peaks.

They also have huge milling plant for stock feeds, maize meal and flour.

Bishopstone Estate exports US$10 million worth of oranges annually derived from 1 200 hectares and they are working on expanding the project and diversifying to other horticulture related activities.

The estate’s managing director, Mr Robert Park, said they had a staff complement of 1 200 people drawn from around Beitbridge district.

He said they were harvesting a total of 225 by 2,2 tonnes trailers of oranges daily and that their new state-of-the-art park-shed can pack between 50 and 60 tonnes per hour.

“We load 11 trucks daily for export and outside fruits season, we grow 20 hectares of maize under drip irrigation and tomatoes for the local markets,” said Mr Park.

Schweppes Zimbabwe has also invested in a juice processing plant in the area that has the capacity to process 40 000 tonnes of citrus annually.

The company’s managing director Mr Charles Msipa said they are processing around 20 000 tonnes of fruits annually and that local fruits producers were struggling to meet the feedstock target considering that they were producing for both the local and export market.

He said they were working on creating a citrus plantation covering 2 700ha and that another 300 will be owned by communities.

“Currently, we are processing oranges, lemons, and grapefruit into various by-products including juice and oils and stock feeds,” said Mr Msipa.

“The fruit juice concentrate is being used for concentrate to supply juice-containing beverages in the country.”

Mr Msipa added that they were also extracting oils from the grapefruit, lemons, and orange oils, which they are exporting to Europe and South Africa.

The peel that remains, he said, was a good ingredient for manufacturing stock feeds.

“This has come in handy in this region where livestock production is one of the major sources of livelihood,” he said.

Mr Msipa said they were also looking at increasing their staff contingent with the creation of the citrus green field at Zhovhe Dam.

He said they had hired more than 200 people from the areas adjacent to the Beitbridge Juice Processing plant.

Some of the employees, he said, were being trained on juice processing and the manufacturing of stock feeds from fruit peels.

“Besides producing raw materials for the local markets, we are exporting oils and frozen juice to Israel, European and other markets in need of the product,” said Mr Msipa.

“We are hopeful that in the not so distant future, we will get to a stage where we produce enough for the local plant’s production and extend our market share internationally.”

Mr Msipa said they were looking at introducing more programmes that will benefit communities in Beitbridge in line with the devolution concept.