Zaka farmer finally receives tractor from ZAS

BRILLIANT MUKARO
MIRROR REPORTER

ZAKA – Consen Mutasa, adjudged the best national Pfumvudza farmer at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show held in Harare in September 2022, has finally received his prize of a tractor from the show organisers.
The Zimbabwe Agricultural Society handed over an MTZ 820 tractor at a field day held at Mutasa’s homestead at Masikati Village under Chief Ndanga in Zaka District on Thursday last week. The chief director for Agriculture, Rural Development and Advisory Services (ARDAS), Prof Obert Jiri, handed over the tractor.
The citation for the award is that he had the best infiltration pits for water harvesting, and his field had the best mulch.
“Mutasa’s success must inspire all farmers that Pfumvudza if well executed, comes with great benefits. It restores infertile soils and can make farmers grow big grains in arid conditions,” said Jiri.
He dissuaded farmers of the notion that the Pfumvudza Programme was just a way of getting agricultural inputs from the President’s scheme.
Asked for a comment, Mutasa said the pfumvudza concept if well executed, can restore arid lands and enable farmers to grow big grains even in arid regions where they usually fail.
The field day started at Mutasa’s sunflower fields, where farmers from Zaka, Bikita, Chiredzi and agricultural companies like Valley Seeds represented. The farmers were shown around Mutasa’s Pfumvudza project.
Mutasa harvested water by digging trenches around his fields. The trenches are approximately one metre, serve to hold water so that it is not lost as run-off. Once harvested, it will be in the trenches for some time and enter the fields through seepage.