ARDA Drives Zimbabwe’s Food and Biofuel Production Surge

By Kudzaishe Chimonera

Zimbabwe’s Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) says it is focusing on expanding production as part of efforts to support national development goals.

Speaking to journalists, ARDA Chief Executive Officer Tinotenda Mhiko said the authority’s priority was to increase output in key sectors such as food, fibre and biofuel.

“Our mandate entails expanding the product development and guaranteeing the national food, food, fibre, biofuel is executed,” he said.

Mhiko said ARDA’s programmes were aligned with the National Development Strategy 2 as well as wider economic ambitions.

“We have to have an agriculture food system throughout the Law Transformation Strategy 2 as well as the National Development Strategy 2,” he said.

He added that the organisation was also guided by the goal of building “a prosperous, empowered, up-and-coming, low-income society.”

ARDA is involved in a range of agricultural activities including crop and livestock production.

“We have cereals, oilseeds, beef, dairy, nuts, pecan nuts, citrus, etc. All those things,” Mhiko said.

He said the authority also runs commercial farming operations and irrigation schemes across the country.

“We have 426 irrigation scheme business units on 26 000 hectares of land. So, technically it’s a single cluster of farmers,” he said.

Mhiko said ARDA supports different categories of farmers, including those under Zimbabwe’s A1 and A2 land reform models through financing and technical assistance.

“We have the estates, the irrigation scheme business units then we have the A1 and A2 range of farmers that we support with capital finance, agronomy, technical extension etc.,” he said.

He added that smaller-scale farmers organised into clusters were also part of the authority’s operations.

“There is 0.1, 0.5, 0.8, one hectare farmers. The farmer is one block. So, these are managed under the A1,” he said.

Mhiko said ARDA’s production strategy was built around long-term sustainability and profitability.

“The production is done in the back of a viable, profitable, sustainable business case to guarantee continuity, to guarantee profitability,” he said.