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George Maponga in Masvingo

Community buy-in remains a vital cog in the rollout of the US$60 million Chilonga Lucerne Grass Project by local milk processor Dendairy, which has earmarked an initial 200 hectares to be put under the forage legume for demonstration purposes in Chiredzi.

The fodder crop project suffered initial hitches after villagers in Chilonga, confused after some anti-Government non-governmental organisations started raising fake fears, resisted its rollout under false grounds they would be displaced from their ancestral land.

The Government and Dendairy have made it clear that the lucerne investment sees farmers growing lucerne under irrigation on their ancestral land as a cash crop. Only the odd farmer may have to move, although remaining in the community, to make way for canals and roads.

At full throttle, the lucerne project is expected to straddle over 12 000ha between Masivamele and Chilonga areas in southern Chiredzi giving the communities there a major cash crop that will rapidly raise their standards of living.

Dendairy was forced to go back to the drawing board to restrategise and rescue the multi-million dollar project that is set to economically transform Chilonga from a rural outpost into a modern settlement with facilities such as running water, lucerne processing factories and centre pivot irrigation.

The firm has now decided to put the community at the centre of the project for buy-in as lurcene production at Chilonga falls under the Lowveld integrated irrigation development master plan and is also in sync with Vision 2030.

Dendairy Lucerne Project Public Relations Manager Ms Lilian Muungani said that community engagement with the Chilonga people was ongoing for the project to take off and help grow the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

According to preliminary plans by Dendairy, plans are to develop an initial 200ha that will be put under lucerne for demonstrating to other villagers the soundness of the project.

This demonstration phase is the expected outcome of the ongoing deliberations between Government, Dendiary and the Chilonga community.

“The current community engagement programme will also facilitate commencement of trials through an initial 200ha lucerne irrigation field for demonstration purposes.

“The demonstration phase requires that farmers are selected by the communities themselves to produce lucerne as out-growers under irrigation conditions.”

According to Dendairy this trial run will afford the Chilonga community an opportunity to experience lucerne and make comparisons with current dry crops on total yield and earnings per hectare per annum. The demonstration phase would be used as a “look and learn facility” for the Chilonga families considering that the project will also cause a massive shift in livelihood patterns.

Dendairy believes the Chilonga lucerne project and other such ventures earmarked for other parts of the country will be key in helping Zimbabwe replenish and grow its beef herd as espoused under the National Development Strategy 1.

Irrigated lucerne production is an accelerator of the country’s livestock growth plan with plans on cards to open a fodder bank between Masivamele and Chilonga.

The fodder bank will be handy in the supply of stock feed to rebuild and expand the Lowveld bee industry and that of the nation as a whole.

Lucerne is a key source of protein which us crucial in pen fattening and once planted harvesting can start between 70 to 90 days and continue likewise in 28-day cycles for four to five years.

Dendairy plans to irrigate the Chilonga lucerne grass using water from Tugwi-Mukosi Dam which is conveyed via Runde River which isa tributary of Tugwi River that flows in and out of Zimbabwe’s largest interior dam.

Government has already made it clear that there will be no displacement of families from their ancestral land at Chilonga but simply reorganisation for those houses that will fall along routes for facilities such as canals and a railway line.