Fields of dreams bring hope of farming success

Cheng Jun, deputy general manager of APSFG and the chairman of Wanjin, says that the Chinese company's experience over the past 50 years has helped it achieve several advances in agriculture.

According to Chen, APSFG has about 67,000 hectares of land under cultivation in Anhui province along with 15 agricultural R&D institutes. It employs around 27,100 people, of whom 2,300 are highly qualified agricultural experts and technicians.

"Anhui Provincial State Farms Group is a trusted partner with great strength", the former Zimbabwean defense minister Emmerson Mnangagwa said in 2011.

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"Agricultural development requires long-term planning and sustainable practices. We do not expect our investment in Zimbabwe to yield immediate returns," Cheng says.

The real focus for the Chinese company, Cheng says, is technology transfer and skills-enhancement, factors critical to the long-term success of agriculture in Zimbabwe.

"Our primary task is to train as many local agricultural technicians as possible, because science and technology hold the key to better yields."

During the past four years, the Chinese company has sent four batches of agricultural experts and technicians to the African country, bringing the number of trained local employees to more than 1,000 person-times, a measurement that combines the number of persons and their time contribution.

The joint venture has more than 800 local employees and 16 from China. Company officials say they plan to add more agriculture-related jobs in the future.

The Chinhoyi project is unique in that it shares its modern management techniques and practices with the surrounding farm-owners. "Our task is to boost the overall crop yields with the help of technology," He says.

The Hunyani Farm, which is part of the project, is now the main agricultural teaching and practice base for the Chinhoyi University of Technology. The farm has helped the university make several advances in agricultural research.

"Improved application of proper agro-concepts has helped boost yields at the Hunyani Farm," Freedom Tsodzai, the deputy general manager of Wanjin, said in a recent interview with The Herald, a Zimbabwean news portal.

"The Wanjin project is a good role model for Zimbabwe's agriculture sector," says David Jambgwa Simbi, the vice-chancellor of CUT.

Dong Ruping, the head of the Hunyani Farm, however, says that electricity and irrigation are major concerns during dry seasons.

Dong, who was the manager of a State-owned farm in China before coming to Zimbabwe in 2012, says well-timed irrigation is necessary for the healthy growth of crops. In a lighter vein, he says that his challenge is to keep the crops away from the birds, baboons, monkeys and ants.

"China was once an agriculture-dominant country with backward production techniques. But it has now become highly modernized. We want Zimbabwe to achieve the same advances," Dong says.

"Zimbabwe is a beautiful country with a truly pleasant environment. We don't want to do any harm to the environment. So our focus is to use very little or even no chemical fertilizers at all," says Cheng from APSFG, who recommends the use of organic fertilizers.

Dong says that because the leases on most of the agricultural land run for as long as 99 years, it is important for the custodians to take proper care of them and the surrounding environment.

"Only through sustainability can we hope for long-term profits," he says.

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