eBusiness Weekly
Malvern Nkomo
The DRC delegation yesterday attended SeedCo Vegetables’ annual winter field day at the company’s premises in Mount Hampden.
This follows an invitation received from the seed company to come to the annual field day so that they can be able to familiarize themselves and interact with Zimbabwean farmers.
Early this month, ZimTrade took SeedCo and other multisector companies to DRC to explore opportunities in that market and the opportunities in the agricultural sector.
Speaking in an interview the vice president of the Pamlu Farmers Union Baudouin Mukinda said the Congolese market has a huge shortage of seed and the main purpose of the visit to Zimbabwe is to negotiate how the two countries can benefit from each other.
“We were invited after a short visit by SeedCo and Zimtrade to Congo, the proposal was to come and meet Zimbabwean farmers, exchange experiences and see what they are doing. The very big need we have is for seeds.
“We were very disappointed previously when we were supplied with seeds and fertilisers which were not good for our soils and this was giving us very bad results in terms of yields.
“So one of our aims coming here is to get good products and seeds,” said Mr Mukinda.
He said there is a need to grow production and output in DRC and hence finding partners in Zimbabwe is critical.
“If we can get good partners who can supply us with good quality seeds we can be able to grow our production back in the DRC.
“We hope and believe that we will be able to establish a good partnership with SeedCo and this relationship will be beneficial to both sides,” he said.
SeedCo Vegetables said that it developed and introduced new seed varieties which are more resistant to pests and disease and have a shorter maturity period which has potential of performing in the Congolese market.
Key stakeholder manager Masimba Kanyepi said there is need to educate and equip the Congolese farmers with the necessary farming skills so that they can be able to sustain themselves in food production.
“When we went to the DRC as SeedCo vegetables, we wanted to identify how we can engage our fellow counterparts in that country, especially in terms of vegetable production.
“DRC has been mainly focusing on mining and relying on imports of various agricultural products and when we arrived there, we then discovered that they lack knowledge in the technical and know-how to produce crops,” he said.
“It then coincided with the SeedCo Vegetables annual winter field day, and we decided to invite them to come and have an appreciation of what we do here in Zimbabwe and be able to comprehend what we talked about in DRC,” said Mr Kanyepi.
He expressed his gratitude to the Pamlu Farmers Union, the equivalent of the Zimbabwe’s Farmers Union for coming and accepting the invitation to come to Zimbabwe only a few weeks after their visit to DRC.
He also said that there is need to capacitate and train the Congolese producers as well as provide the genetics which can help them improve their yields and quality so that they can be able to sustain themselves in terms of food.
“We would want them to adopt our new hybrid varieties and new technologies in seed and before they start production we have to equip them with the knowledge so that we do not take chances when it comes to productivity issues.
“As SeedCo we value support and advisory to our farmers and we also want to make sure that we capacitate our fellow farmers in the DRC,” said Mr Kanyepi.
ZimTrade Export Promotion Officer Alex Mutandi said “We expect more business engagement between the company that we took on a trade mission, SeedCo and the Congolese counterparts who are currently in the country.
“We are looking forward to successful business negotiations as the Congolese are friendly to do business with Zimbabwe”.
