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Writes Elvis Dumba
Zvimba – A Namibian delegation from Kavango East Region has lauded the Zimbabwean government for coming up with policies and frameworks that empower citizens through the successful agrarian revolution that was rolled out in 2000 to correct social imbalances, with beneficiaries of the land reform programme accessing machinery, loans, and inputs courtesy of the government.
Nambian’s Kavango East and Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland West provinces have a twinning arrangement that spans for over four years with the two sides visiting each other annually to strengthen bilateral relations.
Speaking after touring Nstinje Farm in Zvimba district which is owned by Mr Job Dalu and his wife, the chief regional officer of Kavango East Region, Ms Ludgela Nangura, who represented the area’s governor, said Zimbabwe had made tremendous strides towards empowering its people economically through policies that they hoped to take back home.
The delegation also toured Avlon Farm, eight kilometres south of Chinhoyi, where over US$2,5 million has been injected into blueberry production.
“To be honest, this is a well-developed farm in the context of a business model and those are the things that we appreciate. We hope to carry the experience of what we see here back to the region where we are coming from. I believe this is not the last time we are to come here.
“We will convey the message of how farmers are operating here and how the government is supporting the farmers. As they say, you have to copy those that have made it in order to succeed,” she said.
She rallied behind President Mnangagwa’s call for locals to take responsibility to build their communities saying Zimbabwean farmers were working towards creating a food-self-sufficient Southern African region.
“We should rally behind fellow Africans to succeed and no one else is going to come from Europe and other foreign lands to bring development,” she added.
Namibia’s Rundu Mayor, Mr. Gabriel Kanyanga, said there was a lot Namibia would learn from Zimbabwe.
Mr. Dalu, who is a proud owner of the 115-hectare farm that he got in 2008, employing at least 150 workers, said he owed his successes to the Zimbabwean government.
“We are who we are today because of the policies that were put in place by the government and these have managed to see us grow from what we were 15 years ago to today,” he said.
The couple has transformed the virgin land into a model of a commercial farm putting up modern structures, a dam that irrigates 30 hectares, five pivots, tobacco bans, and state-of-the-art machinery.