eBusiness Weekly
Kudzanai Sharara
Trek Petroleum is set to inject more than $3,7 million into the 2017 / 18 maize production season at the four farms that it is currently running under a Private, Public Partnerships (PPP) in partnership with the Agricultural Development Authority (ARDA).
In 2015, ARDA and Trek entered into a five- year partnership for four of its farms. Under the agreement, Trek Petroleum manages the farms, carrying the risk and financing of production while in return ARDA gets 10 percent of revenue.
In an interview with Business Weekly, Trek Petroleum general manager Onias Sanangura said his company was set to inject $3,75 million for maize production in the 2017/18 season. This is almost the same level in invested in the 2016/17 summer cropping season.
“We have budgeted $3,75 million for maize production at the four farms we are in currently managing under an agreement with ARDA. These are Doreen Spride Estate (now Mbuya Nehanda), ARDA Ingwizi estate in Mangwe District, Arda Antelope estate in Kezi and Sanyati Estate,” he said.
“For the 2017/ 18 summer cropping season, we are working on a similar amount of hectarage as last season, that is 223ha at Mbuya Nehanda estate, 500ha at Antelope estate, 650ha at Ingwizi estate and 280ha at Sanyati estate.”
Sanangura said his company, which provides funding and manpower in the partnership, was in the process of opening up more land for production.
“At Antelope estate there is potential for 3 000ha, 2 000ha at Ingwizi, 9 000ha at Mbuya Nehanda and 1 300ha at Sanyati. We won’t be seeking more sites at the moment as there is still land to be opened up at the four farms. So we will concentrate on that,” said Sanangura.
Commenting on the winter cropping season Sanangura said Sanyati farm currently has 280ha under seed maize at a total cost of $560 000.
“For seed maize we already have an off take agreement with Seedco for the 2017/ 18 season. We also have wheat where we invested $3,8 million for 1 720ha where we are expecting yields of up 8 tonnes per hectare,” he said.
Sanangura said Trek Petroleum had invested approximately $11 million capital outlay at the four farms.
