Obert Chifamba recently in MUTARE
THE Forestry Commission has  since 2005 lost 12 percent of its seed orchards for special plantation species to veld fires.

Forestry Commission seed physiologist Mr Mduduzi Tembani made the revelations at the Zimbabwe College of Forestry and Forest Industries Training Centre Open Day in Mutare recently.
Mr Tembani said seed production, collection and distribution had also taken a tumble since 2008 owing to a host of challenges chief among them limited access to capital and lack of transport to collect or distribute seed.

“Our seed centres currently distribute 500kg of seed for plantation species every year but we would like to see this increasing by 80 percent come the year 2016 with production also rising by 130 percent for some key species by the same year.
“We aim to be producing about 824kg of seed per year by 2016 though our production has been falling leaving us unable to meet targets,” said Mr Tembani.

He added that since 2007 above 280kg of seed had been distributed locally while export markets have accounted for 21kg only.
“Our distribution has been biased towards the local market but our aim is to expand our marketing strategies into the regional markets.
Over the past years 72 percent of our seed has been distributed locally while 28 percent has gone to external markets,” explained Mr Tembani.

There was need, Mr Tembani said, for the establishment of more seed orchards every year, preferably at the rate of four per year while more funding was also needed for the recapitalisation of research stations to boost their capacity to produce new competitive varieties.
Seed centres also needed to be adequately equipped with vehicles to boost efficiency in the collection or distribution of seed and the execution of other activities necessary for the smooth functioning of the centres.

Mr Tembani also cited high dependency on labour intensive production methods as one of their biggest letdowns.
Forestry Commission has established a total of 13 seed orchards between 2008 and 2011.
The parastatal has 165 orchards that sit on 382,6ha of land.

Speaking at the same occasion, Allied Timbers Group chief executive Dr Joseph Kanyekanye said valuation of forests in Zimbabwe was limited — a situation that saw their contribution to the Gross Domestic Product not being recognised.
He said there was no credible valuation method for forests in Zimbabwe at the moment, which also contributed to former plantation owners’ failure to seek compensation for the plantations they lost during the land reform.

“There is need for proper valuation methods and a practical framework to determine the true value of forests to allow the country to enjoy the revenue that is generated by the industry.
“Zimbabwe is not giving commercial value to wood yet the utilisable value of standing trees is US$6,67 per cubic metre.

“Allied Timbers have even valued their trees at US$10 per cubic metre for a standing tree while the Wattle Forests have their value at US$25 per cubic metre per tree with Border Timbers quoting US$45 per cubic metre for a standing tree,” said Dr Kanyekanye.
Dr Kanyekanye said Zimbabwean forests had a value of more than US$3 million that was not being tapped into.

He also said there was need for more research on the possibility of using value of processed timber to determine the value of forests.
This would also call for the standardisation of all the valuations.
Students at the centre showcased their research findings during the open day and called for the formulation of policies to protect their research products from piracy.

One of the students, Golden Matimba, said the production of hybrid seed required heavy capital investment, which made it critical for policymakers and the colleges to source adequate financial resources towards the cause.