THE government has directed irrigation schemes to operate as commercial enterprises, emphasising business planning, market research, and professional management to boost productivity and rural development.
The move marks a decisive shift from subsistence farming, aiming to transform irrigation schemes into profit-generating ventures that create jobs, enhance food security and stimulate rural economies.
Speaking on behalf of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development secretary Obert Jiri, chief director of the Department of Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services, Leonard Munamati, said the era of subsistence farming at irrigation schemes was over.
In the past years, irrigation schemes were not really producing, making a business. They were doing it at the subsistence level. But now we are saying irrigation schemes should do farming as a business,” he said.
Munamati called for schemes to employ resident business managers to work alongside agricultural advisors, the Agricultural Marketing Authority, the Agricultural Rural Development Authority, banks and the Agricultural Finance Corporation.
He urged schemes to focus on high-value crops and forge joint ventures with companies such as Zadzamatura and CP Chemicals to ensure food security.
Siyalima Irrigation Scheme vice-chairperson Brighton Mupfurutsa said the scheme, started by small-scale farmers, created jobs and improved livelihoods. “Locals can now send their children to school and buy residential stands thanks to the scheme’s benefits,” he said.
Mupfurutsa highlighted challenges, including a shortage of machinery.
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“We need two tractors and more implements; we need to make it work, but we do not have a boom spray,” he said, adding that the scheme was venturing into winter cropping for the first time.
“We are going to plant sugar beans. We are going to plant 5 tonnes of sugar beans.”
Guruve North MP Tendai Pinduka praised the initiative as a model for rural development aligned with National Development Strategy 2.
“What we are seeing here at Siyalima is a clear testimony of rural development; this is more like an enterprise that will generate incomes that will also support households in terms of paying school fees,” he said.
Pinduka called for scaling up of the programme to other areas, saying Guruve district has more than 16 dams ready for irrigation development, with only two functional.
He called on the government to accelerate rural development by establishing irrigation schemes at 14 idle dams.
