BY OBERT SIAMILANDU

Community information centres (CIC) being commissioned in various parts of the country can promote e-agriculture, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) has said.

In his speech at the commissioning of the Rafingora CIC on Friday, Potraz director-general Gift Machengete said: “Rafingora is a predominantly farming community and the benefits that this centre will bring to the farmers are enormous.

“To begin with, through CICs, farmers can access various e-agriculture platforms that are available. Such platforms can enable farmers to hire or hire out equipment such as combine harvesters, tractors, trailers, boom sprayers and shellers, among other things, thus improving farming efficiency.”

He added: “Farmers can also order implements online such as seed, fertilizer, pesticides and approach courier service providers such as ZimPost’s Courier Connect for delivery. This will ensure farming operations are not hindered by travel restricting pandemics such as COVID-19.”

Through the internet, Machengete said, farmers could access information about market trends, which would assist them in appropriately planning their operations.

“Online research can also be done on the latest and more efficient farming methods which may help farmers to cut costs and increase productivity,” he said.

“Through community information centres, communities will soon benefit from the e-government project where they will be able to apply for passports, identity particulars, birth certificates, death certificates and burial orders among other essential government issued documents from centres such as this one.”

Apart from CICs, Potraz is collaborating with the ICT ministry on several other projects in the country aimed at improving internet access and use as well as bridging the digital divide.

Focusing on Mashonaland West province, the telecommunications regulator has erected three shared base station towers in Neuso and Gachegache.

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