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Manicaland Correspondent
THE 108th edition of the Manicaland Agricultural Show starts tomorrow, with over 200 exhibitors expected to showcase their products.

Manicaland Agricultural Show acting administrator Ms Pedzisai Rusero yesterday told The Herald that they were still expecting more exhibitors.

“This year’s edition so far has 200 exhibitors, but more are still coming,” she said. “This is an improvement from last year where we had 170 exhibitors for the duration of the event.”

This year’s event will be running under the theme “Economic growth through collaborative effort”.

Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs Cde Monica Mutsvangwa will officially open the show on Friday.

Ms Rusero urged the people of Mutare and Manicaland to attend this year’s show, which had been designed to cater for everyone’s taste.

“We are calling on residents of Manicaland to come in their numbers for a memorable outing,” she said.

On the business front, Ms Rusero said they had created a very conducive environment for exhibitors.

“We encourage all exhibitors to visit our offices for assistance,” she said. “We want everyone in attendance to benefit in one way or the other.

“The show was brought forward from the month of September to August so most exhibitors are still setting up their stands, but will certainly be ready for Wednesday when the event kicks off. It is expected to run from Wednesday to Sunday.”

Preparations for the event have been going on well.

“This year a lot of renovations have been done compared to last year and some are still in progress,” said Ms Rusero. “We have increased security and rehabilitated the  precast wall besides upgrading other facilities.

“This year’s event was relatively easy to put together, thanks to a lot of donations from different companies such as Econet Wireless, Coca-Cola, National Foods and others.”

Ms Rusero said all districts in Mutare would be participating at the show with more than 40 exhibitors coming from outside Manicaland.

Gate charges for the five-day event will be pegged at $2 for kids and $3 for adults respectively from Wednesday to Friday, while charges for Saturday would be increased to $3 for kids and $4 for adults since popular musician Jah Prayzah would be performing.

Meanwhile, a Rusape woman, Ms Monica Madziwa, won the top prize of a tractor at a Farm & City draw conducted during the 2018 Mazowe Valley Agricultural Show in Bindura recently, writes our Mashonaland Central correspondent Lawrence Chitumba

The competition, which is aimed at rewarding Farm & City customers, also saw three other winners – Mr Danwell Kauperi of Bindura, Mr Christopher Kanyepo of Mt Darwin and Mr Wilcliffy Katsiga of Mvurwi – walking away with motorbikes.

In an interview on the sidelines of the draw, Farm & City marketing officer Mr Walter Tayengwa said:  “As you can see, our company ran a competition where customers who purchased five bags or more of fertiliser qualified for the competition. It is aimed at rewarding them and as a way of ploughing back to the community.

“Zimbabwe is an agriculture-based economy and as a company we are value adding on agricultural production by making sure that inputs are readily available at all our 40 outlets nationwide under one roof on a one-tier pricing system for the convenience of our customers.”

Mr Tayengwa said the company was a stockist of reliable and renowned brands, hence its popularity among farmers.