George Maponga in Masvingo

A total of 3 000ha will be cleared in Buffalo Range in the Lowveld for irrigation by Manjirenji Dam with contracts awarded to a private Chinese company, China Nan Chang to clear 2 000ha and local company Fossil to clear the other 1 000ha.

Both contractors have moved their equipment into the area while selection of those who will be allocated the irrigated plots will start soon. Buffalo range saw a fair amount of resettlement and plot holders drawn from the local community.

This development dovetails with Government’s thrust to shift from rain-fed agriculture and use the country’s dams to ensure food security under irrigation as espoused by the National Development Strategy One.

Wheat is likely to be the major winter crop as Zimbabwe is still pushing for self-sufficiency so there is a ready market and it is a crop that requires irrigation. Summer crops will vary.

The water comes from Manjirenji, which is in Zaka by canal to Buffalo Range but then needs to be pumped into fields. Modern irrigation technology such as centre pivots will be employed after land clearing.

Chiredzi district development coordinator Mr Lovemore Chisema said the new irrigation scheme would boost agriculture in the district.

“The Chinese contractor has already moved on site to start land clearing and this will enhance ongoing efforts to achieve food security once the project is completed,” said Mr Chisema.

“Beneficiaries under the irrigation project will be drawn from communities resettled in the Buffalo Range area but at the moment we don’t have the exact number of people who will benefit,” he said.

Before this project, water from Manjirenji was largely underused, although some irrigated cane plantations at Mkwasine estates, east of Chiredzi Town.

Under the land clearing project, Zinwa contracted China Nan Chang while the Department of Irrigation hired Fossil.

Initial projections were that the Buffalo Range irrigation project would be on stream by mid -year and be immediately put under wheat. Masvingo provincial Agritex officer Mr Aaron Muchazivepi yesterday said that it was no longer possible after delays.

“We had earmarked to make sure beneficiaries grow wheat under the irrigation project before moving to other crops on a rotational basis, but this is no longer possible. We are now looking forward to the summer cropping season,” he said.

Masvingo has the country’s highest dam density and some of these water bodies remain largely underused.

The Lowveld has been identified as the nerve-centre of Government’s irrigation development programme that seeks to not just boost food and other agricultural production but also build up a huge base of business orientated farmers, both small and medium scale, that will create a vast new rural middle class and ensure that the growing national prosperity reaches the maximum number of people.