Mealie Brand introduces new products for conservation farming

AS the summer cropping season draws closer, Mealie Brand, a division of Zimplow, has introduced a range of equipment and techniques designed to complement Government initiatives promoting conservation farming.

These initiatives aim to reduce the labour associated with conservation farming while also minimising soil tillage, which leads to soil disturbances. In an interview, Mealie Brand production manager, Engineer Special Musoni, explained that conservation farming encompasses various aspects, including minimal soil disturbance, energy utilisation, and labour productivity.

He stated that conservation farming should reduce the amount of energy required, including fuel, machinery, and manual labour needed for the entire process.
“Farmers should have a holistic understanding of what conservation agriculture entails. Soil disturbance is one of many aspects, with its accruing benefits of soil revitalisation along the process,” said Eng Musoni.

“From that perspective, Mealie Brand has developed two key products, with two different value chains in the hybrid of value chains in terms of the vertical integration on how we are supplying the product.

“The first product is the two-wheel planter, which can be used for planting without tillage. You can directly place the seed into the ground without tillage, which is zero-till planting.”

The two-wheel planter opens up the furrow along planting lines, drops the seed and fertiliser, closes the lines, and compacts all in one pass. It is a two-row machine.
He said the cost of producing the product was high, but they are working on reducing it so that farmers can access it.

He also noted that the equipment reduces the number of machines needed by farmers, as the planter can also perform chemical weeding in a single pass.
“This planter uses only 4l of diesel per hectare. In comparison, conventional farming requires buying a drum of fuel, paying between US$50 and US$80 for labour to do the tillage, and then returning to do the planting with three to four people needed to plant using hoes in tilled land,” he said.

“So, consider the number of machines, labour, and fuel. Using our new two-wheel planter, you use 4l of fuel per hectare and operate with one person and one machine.

“This is how we have conserved labour, and fuel, and reduced the mechanisation requirements to introduce the seed into the ground.”

The Government continues to urge farmers to practice conservation farming, including pfumvudza/intwasa and irrigation, among other initiatives, to improve productivity and revitalise the soil.

Pfumvudza/intwasa is commonly practiced by small-scale farmers who use hoes to prepare the ground where the seed is to be placed. However, Eng Musoni noted that it is labour-intensive, hence the need to introduce small engines like the hand auger to assist small farmers.

He said small engines like two-wheel ploughs bridge the gap between commercial farmers who use large tractors and peasant farmers who use ox-drawn ploughs, which has been a challenge for medium-sized farmers.

“After the Land Reform Programme, the Government introduced farmers with between one and 50 hectares. These farmers cannot viably operate using animals or tractors; they are in between. The question is, do we have in-between technology?” said Eng Musoni.

“This is why there is a drive in Africa, through the African Development Bank, to introduce small engine-backed technologies in the African agricultural value chains.”

He said farmers can use that small engine from planting to harvesting. The same engine can pull a trailer, pump water, and be used in milling and crushing.
Additionally, Mealie Brand has introduced ox-drawn plough equipment, which can be used to plant seeds instead of using a ploughshare that tills the entire ground. –chronicle

Diaspora health specialists urged to invest in medical tourism
Diaspora health specialists urged to invest in medical tourism Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Cde Barbara Rwodzi

MEDICAL specialists in the Diaspora should return home and tap into the investment opportunities that the Government is providing in the tourism sector, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Barbra Rwodzi said this at the Scholastic Tourism Conference which took place on the sidelines of the main Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo 2024 running from September 11-13 at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre in Bulawayo.

The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development hosted the conference under the theme “Leveraging Heritage Based Education 5.0 for the Development of Tourism and Hospitality in Zimbabwe” to support youth in academia and expose their ideas to the tourism community.

One of the key outputs of the initiative is to ensure a sustainable fusion of Heritage Based Education 5.0 with tourism to boost tourism through innovation and enterprise development.

Minister Babra Rwodzi

Minister Rwodzi told delegates, including students from universities, that people outside tourism can also play a role in the development of the sector by using their specialised skills, citing an example of medical tourism.

Medical tourism most often is for specialised surgeries (cosmetic or otherwise) or similar treatments, although people also travel for dental tourism or fertility tourism.

“That is the reason why we clustered tourism. We are here with the permanent secretary for Health and Child Care and someone will wonder what he is doing here. It is because we have medical tourism and we want to grow the sector.

“Right now, we are having thorough conversations between our Ministry and our counterparts in the Health Ministry to see how the Emirates Flights can have enough business to land directly from Dubai to Victoria Falls.

“It won’t happen unless there is a 100-bed hospital with a theatre in Victoria Falls. This is how we connect; that’s why the Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development is also sitting here. It’s about connectivity,” she said.

Minister Barbra Rwodzi

Minister Rwodzi urged medical specialists in the Diaspora to establish a medical tourism facility in the country.

“Anyone who has trained in medicine can start a medical tourism facility and we are encouraging all the doctors, particularly specialists in the Diaspora, to come to the facility we are planning in Victoria Falls.

“I am sure we are on the verge now, sometime next year we will be groundbreaking a hospital in Masuwe in Mosi-O-Tunya. So, if Emirates wants a 100-bed with a theatre for their emergencies, we will have it,” she said.

Minister Rwodzi pointed out that if Victoria Falls hosts a Cardiology Specialist Hospital, people from across the world will flock to the city for treatment, boosting the tourism industry.

“You come for treatment but you also receive therapy when you visit Great Zimbabwe. When people go to India or China with their relatives for treatment that’s medical tourism because they are going to spend money on medicals in another country where they will eat, sleep and stay.

“This means people within that industry are involved in tourism. People in wildlife were trained in wildlife management but in the end, the tourism sector will benefit as a whole from their expertise,” she said. – New Ziana.