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By Elvis Dumba
Banket- Most of sports and country clubs which were used by former white commercial farmers are in a deplorable state across the country.
Government has partnered various institutions in rehabilitating these premises which saw Banket Sports Club being renovated by fertilizer manufacturing company FSG Superfert.
FSG Logistics Manager Ngoni Kandeya said his company has partnered government in renovating sports clubs across the country so that farmers can have a conducive meeting place where they will be able to share agriculture information.
“As a partner in the development of agriculture sector we so it fit to carry out one of our corporate responsibility through ploughing back into the agriculture community and the renovation of this Banket Sports Club is part of our contribution in allowing our farmers to have a conducive environment where they can meet and exchange agriculture ideas,” he said during the Banket Sports Club handover ceremony in Banket.
Kundai Makuku, Agritex Deputy Director paid tribute to the late former Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development Minister Rtd Air Marshall Perence Shiri for coming up with a vision of resuscitation of sports clubs for the benefit of farmers.
“The Late Minister Rtd Air Marshall Perence Shiri had a vision of seeing such properties being used for its former purposes of which former white commercial farmers used these sports clubs for such as skills and knowledge sharing for agriculture development and I urge farmers to make use of this agriculture center of excellence in ensuring that they carry out successful agriculture development,” she said.
Deputy Minister of Lands,Agriculture,Water,Fisheries and Rural Development, Vangelis Haritotis said most of the sports club are in an awful conditions after they were taken over by local authorities and ministry of lands post the land reform program with most of them not being used for their original use.
Haritotis said government perspective on revitalising the agriculture sector was rooted on responsive capacitated extension delivery system.
“Several initiatives are in motion to capacitate our extension workers with the requisite resources to effectively carry out their jobs of educating our farmers for increased agriculture production through mobility support among others and I strongly encourage that these country clubs should be strictly reserved use as training hubs and demonstration centres and these centres should be used for networking and synergies in sharing information and ideas by. farmers and extension workers, we are witnessing a cordial relationship between government and stakeholders such as FSG Pvt Holdings who have successfully refurbished Banket and Bindura Sports Clubs,”he said.
Haritotis thanked Superfert for its continued support towards the agriculture sector through programs such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa and Command Agriculture in which the company is a major supplier and they have also donated motorbikes to extension workers as to improve mobility for extension workers.
Banket Sports Club is on more than ten hectares of land and Haritotis urged that the land be used for agriculture production.