ROSELINE MUTARE
MBERENGWA-The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Anxious Masuka has said urban to rural migration is now imminent due to the irrigation projects being undertaken by Government.
Masuka said the rural areas are becoming more attractive and very soon urbanites will be trooping to the rural areas looking for job opportunities.
During the commissioning of the 300 hectare Biri extension irrigation scheme Masuka said, “My expectation is that in the next two years or so, we will witness urban to rural migration because we are establishing these agro industrial centres in villages.”.
He emphasized that it is his wish to establish more village based companies which will be employing people in the rural areas.
The irrigation scheme which was spearheaded by the government together with development partners, OPEC Fund and DIT, has seen 6000 hectares of irrigable land across the country in the year being rehabilitated.
The farmers at Biri irrigation scheme formed and registered their company” Mataga Private Limited” and they are introducing the block system which the Minister said is going to benefit lot of farmers at national level.
“You can clearly see the benefits of improved agronomy and increased production and productivity. So now farming has become a business. The 280 beneficiaries came together into a company which is going to run this scheme on a more sustainable and viable basis,” Masuka said.
“The agro processing facilities that they will establish at Mataga Growth Point ie a milling company for maize and wheat and subsequently a bakery.
“And we were talking about processing the sunflower produced here into cooking oil using facilities available here. This is rural development in motion,” he said.
