The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere and Tinashe Farawo
The revival of the Agricultural Rural Development Authority estates seems unlikely in the near future after its offer to partner private farmers failed to find takers.
Only two of ARDA’s 21 agricultural estates – Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi – are operating viably while the rest are lying idle due to alleged mismanagement and corruption. The development has stifled the authority’s contribution to national food security and to rectify the situation, ARDA offered to lease most of its farms on a Rehabilitate Operate and Transfer basis.
A recent tour of some of ARDA’s farms in the drought-prone Matabeleland provinces by The Sunday Mail Extra established that there is little and in some cases no production on most of the estates.
According to the auditor-general’s 2013 report on the operations of ARDA between 2005 and 2010, the situation is the same with other ARDA farms dotted across the country with the exception of Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi being operated by private players.
Estates in the Lowveld region such as Nuanesti Ranch in Chiredzi, Makwe in Gwanda, and ARDA Balu in Umguza District, which are earmarked for partnerships, are all lying idle with little or no activity.
ARDA chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza acknowledge that despite overwhelming responses from private entities to their offer for partnerships, most potential partners withdrew or could not qualify after assessing balance sheets.
“Over the last year, we have engaged not less than five partners. After the screening of those interested in partnering us in our estates, we are left with 18 throughout the country. Some expressed interest, but after assessing their balance sheets, they couldn’t make it,” said Mr Nyabadza on the uptake of the partnerships.
However, well-placed sources and senior officials within ARDA say potential partners are scared away by the authority’s heavy debts, workers’ salary backlog and rundown equipment at the farms.
“The state of affairs at the farms is not looking good at all. Of all the equipment and infrastructure that was there, nothing is left and that is scaring away investors,” the source said.
At Balu estate in Umguza District, where ARDA had entered into a partnership with a private company called DTZ to process horticultural and dairy products, only one cow out of 500 dairy cattle is left.
The equipment which had
been delivered to the estate for the processing of horticultural products is also lying idle and is dilapidating.
While there is some activity at ARDA Nandi in Chiredzi, where the authority entered into partnership with Mangwa-quip, much of the land is still under-utilised.
The revelations revive the unrelenting allegations of corruption, embezzlement and mismanagement levelled against ARDA.
Vice-President Cde Phelekezela Mpoko also recently blasted the ARDA board for failing to improve the state of the farms.
Mr Nyabadza, however, is of the view that ARDA is on the mend as the partnerships it entered into with various private entities are serving the purpose. He said at least US$31 million has been invested in the new partnerships.
“Yes it has been bad, but the situation is now encouraging after we roped in private players.
“In the next two years, we will be talking about a different story, because most of our partnerships are taking shape, starting with the winter wheat cropping season,” he said.
Observers, however, say the partnerships are taking too long to make a difference as the idea was mooted a long a time ago.
Minister of State Affairs for Matabeleland South province Cde Abednico Ncube raised concerns about the performance of the estates in the province.
“We have a number of ARDA irrigation schemes in the province, but a lot of them are not functioning well because the infrastructure is old and it needs rehabilitation.
“We have Makwe, Guyu (all ARDA farms) and many others but they are all not doing well and only Mawabeni, which is a community scheme, is performing better.
“The other challenge is that Zesa has disconnected some of these farms thereby making it difficult to irrigate,” he said.
Cde Ncube said the effects of bad rains this season were now being felt in Matabeleland, adding that the situation could have been averted if ARDA estates in the area were functioning properly.
The combined ARDA farms make nearly 100 000 hectares of arable land with 18 000 hectares under irrigation. This means ARDA could easily produce half of the country’s annual maize demands which is around 2 million tonnes.
The estates have been dwindling over the years as a result of poor agricultural practices, late application of fertilisers and chemicals, obsolete irrigation infrastructure and poor funding.
This season, a number of estates such as Balu failed to plant even a single acre while the cattle herd and dairy cows disappeared under unclear circumstances and negligence.
Only 1 100 metric tonnes of maize, about 5000 metric tonnes of wheat, almost 2 000 metric tonnes of soya, and about 5 000 broiler chicken are expected from all the ARDA farms which used to produce way more than this.
At its peak, ARDA was the biggest employer in the agricultural sector, but it has lost most of its skilled workforce as workers go for months without pay.
Presenting a report on ARDA operations in Parliament, the Comptroller and Auditor-General said for the functional farms, the authority has failed to manage contract farming.
“ARDA was failing to effectively monitor contract farming as management was failing to ensure acquisition of inputs in time which has led to reduced acreage and lower yields than budgeted for,” reads part of the report.
Among some of the alleged corrupt tendencies levelled against the authority is the paying for equipment which in some cases was never delivered.
Observers say Public Private Partnerships remain the only solution to revive ARDA but add that there should be transparency in the deals in order f0or more partners to come on board.
