The Sunday Mail
Kuda Bwititi Chief Reporter
In many of his speeches, President Emmerson Mnangagwa unremittingly talks about productivity and hard work as indispensable to national development.
After a tour of his farm last week, it was easy to see why production is the President’s catchphrase.
On Unity Day, leaders of political parties under the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) toured the Head of State’s Pricabe Sherwood Farm on the outskirts of Kwekwe and were awestruck by what they saw.
The 405-hectare farm is an agrarian masterpiece and an archetypal example of agricultural land being put to best use owing to its flourishing crops and highly intensive production.
So eager is the President to produce, that the farm has become too small for him and he rents other pieces of land from nearby farmers.
Pricabe Farm is also highly mechanised, equipped with state-of-the-art machinery including a world-class irrigation system, ultra-modern pump station, man-made dam, heavy-duty milling plant, centre pivots and a host of other machinery.
The farm operates on an industrial business model based on maximum land use through mixed farming in grains cropping, livestock and horticulture.
While many farmers are mourning the ongoing drought plague, Pricabe Farm has an advanced irrigation system that enables the farm to have non-stop water supply throughout the year.
An advanced system of irrigation canals at the farm enables water to be conveyed to all fields.
So advanced is the irrigation system that it can be remote controlled, with the farm manager and President’s young brother Patrick Mnangagwa saying he can direct the system to irrigate the crop through his cellphone application, even when he is not at the farm.
It was easy to see why the farm is a big success as its owner, President Mnangagwa, has a burning passion about agriculture and visits the farm almost every weekend despite his punishing work schedule as Head of State. Chronicling his farm operations, President Mnangagwa said he abides by the biblical principle that man must reap what he sows.
“Mwari vakati uchadya cheziya (God has said we should eat what we produce from hard work). This is the principle that guides me in whatever I do.
“I want to urge you (principals to POLAD) to abide by this principle so that it also guides you because to be productive is a necessity.
“We must be productive. It’s about production, production and more production. In fact, production is God’s inauguration speech and will be part of us until eternity,” he said.
During a tour of the impressive farm, President Mnangagwa showed the POLAD members his extensive maize crop, which has already reached tasselling stage.
While other farmers average around three to five tonnes per hectare of maize, President Mnangagwa said he produces 15 tonnes or more per hectare.
He also joked about how he once teased the late former president Robert Mugabe when the two discussed their farming operations.
“I once asked the former president how many tonnes of maize he produced at his farm. He said about five or so per hectare and I told him that Cde President, you have not yet started to farm,” said President Mnangagwa.
The President also showcased a healthy soyabean crop, underlining how the country can save much needed foreign currency in importing soya, which is an important ingredient in the manufacture of cooking oil.
Banks are so satisfied with the high levels of production at the farm that they voluntarily offer loans to the President, as they are confident of his ability to produce and repay the loans with interest.
The President said Government will continue coming up with policies that encourage production by offering flexible loans and start-up opportunities for young people.
“We should have policies to empower our people. Our people must be able to get loans to produce. We should create windows where our young people access loans for themselves. We should move away from handouts,” he said.
President Mnangagwa narrated the history of the farm prior to the land reform programme, as the land was formerly owned by a close relative of the late former Rhodesia prime minister Ian Smith.
“The farm used to be owned by an in-law of Ian Smith. It was 2 000 hectares in size, but it was divided into 24 farms,” he said.
“This shows the idea behind the land reform programme, which was to empower many landless black people instead of the land belonging to a few white farmers.
“I work well with my neighbours and I assist them in various ways and they have also been able to benefit from the expertise at this farm.”
After touring the farm, the POLAD members were enthralled by the President’s farming prowess as they noted that the country needs more farmers of his ilk.
MDC-T president Ms Thokozani Khupe said Zimbabwe needed farmers in the mould of President Mnangagwa to grow the economy.
“I am amazed by what he has managed to do at this farm. If we can have just 200 or 300 farmers who can perform like this, surely we can save a lot of money that we use to import food and use it to grow our economy,” she said.
Since assuming office in November 2017, the President has underscored that the ongoing land audit will see the cutting of farming sizes. This is because some farmers who benefited under the land reform programme have vast tracts of land that is underutilised.
Many who toured the President’s farm applauded his humility in having one farm, which can be considered to be of average size in comparison to farm sizes of other high-ranking officials.
“Now it makes sense that he talks of cutting farm sizes. His farm is not big compared to farms owned by other prominent officials.
“I know one prominent official who has a farm with 2 000 hectares, but is not using even a quarter of it,” said MDC-T secretary-general Mr Nickson Nyikadzino.
