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LOOKS can be deceiving.  At first glance, you can mistake him for a hip-hop star or a fashionista.

When his name was called out as a nominee for the Young Seed Producer of the Year gong at the annual Federation of Young Farmers Club Zimbabwe awards ceremony in Harare recently, it received mixed reactions.

Whistling and cheering filled a section of the hall, while some murmurs of disapproval could be heard from another corner.

The Doubting Thomas were failing to phantom that the snobbish looking guy in a design outfit could stand the scorching heat to direct farming operations at the more than 1 300-hectare farm located 15km out of Harare along the Harare-Mazowe Road.

As he walked with a spring in his step to receive the winners’ medal from the podium, debate continued raging on at the tables, with some of the guests questioning the selection criteria.

A visit to Ansellia Farm put a seal of approval on the judges’ selection of the baby-faced Rufaro Joseph Gumbo (29) as the deserving recipient of the award.

To George Orwell’s avid readers, Rufaro is Animal Farm’s Boxer character. He always goes an extra mile to see things happening at the farm. As one drives into the farm, a thriving maize crop covers both sides of the road. Another glance to the left side of the land is met with a flowering seed potato crop and cabbages.

Harvesting of the horticultural produce was underway and the farm is a popular destination of Mbare traders who always get value for their money from the farm produce there.

Although Rufaro was not at the farm as he was occupied with securing inputs under Command Agriculture in Harare, the farm’s general manager, Mr Maxwell Mukodza, is the encyclopedia of all operations there. His knowledge of the day-to-day operations of the farm is just amazing. To him, Rufaro is just a bundle of energy.

“Rufaro’s zeal and energy just amazes me. He is different from his peers as he is a hands-on person who is motivated to take farming to dizzy heights. I haven’t seen such an energetic young man. He is just a joy to work with as he is a guiding star to the farm’s operations. He is just a witty young man who is always researching on new farming techniques. If most youths possessed the farming passion which Rufaro has, Zimbabwe would surely reclaim its breadbasket status. He just wants to see things happening and smiles at everyone here,” said Mr Mukodza.

In an interview after a tour of the farm, the down-to-earth Rufaro said there was no letting go of his aspirations to be at the top and rubbing shoulders with the country’s celebrated heroes in the farming business.

Having graduated with a Master’s degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom in 2014, one would have expected the cosiness of an air-conditioned office luring Rufaro to a white-collar job, but alas, his heart was on the land. The lush green crop covering the red soils around their Ansellia Farm just makes his day.

“Upon attaining my masters’ degree, I just decided to pack my bags and head back to the land of my birth, Zimbabwe.

“Although the farm was acquired by my father around 1998, farming was just in my DNA. Our family is also involved in the construction and property development industry, but I opted to apply my entrepreneurship skills on farming.

“My peers tried to change my mind, but I realised that there is no future without farmers. I am a hands-on person. Research and innovations are my driving force. I am always researching on new farming trends, and it is my dream to see this farm being one of the highly-mechanised farms in the country,” he said.

Through Rufaro’s business acumen, the farm has now joined hands with Zimbabwe’s celebrated industries like Seed Co, Zimavian and Zimgold in out-growers programmes.

It is now a hub of value addition as it is also now into exports to bring the much-needed foreign currency into the country.

“We are in the process of constructing a packaging shade as we want to make the farm a one-stop shop. We want to have a complete value chain at the farm as we will be packaging produce like peas, pickles and blue-berries for the export market,” he said.

The farm, which employs about 60 permanent staff members and more than 200 seasonal labourers, has more than 400 hectares of arable land which is being fully utilised. For this summer farming season, 100ha will be under commercial maize, 100ha under soya beans which already has a market at Zimgold, 50ha under certified seed maize, 50ha under Command Agriculture maize and another 50ha under their own soya beans.

The remaining part of the land will be under horticulture, where seed potatoes and cabbages will be rotated.

“We have a centre pivot which we are fully utilising for horticulture. We already have two hectares which are under potatoes and almost ready for the market. We usually reduce our horticulture hectarage in winter because of electricity challenges, but increase in summer.

“We also have two hectares under cabbages. For cabbages, we stagger the planting because we will be harvesting them every day save for Sundays.

“The horticulture sector brings cash to the farm on a daily basis and the income helps in sustaining our commercial activities,” said Mr Mukodza.

The seed potato production is done under the hawk eyes of Government inspectors who visit the farm regularly to inspect the produce to ensure that the market has quality seed.

They are also into poultry and beef cattle production, with plans at an advanced stage to introduce dairy farming. They have a 200-herd of mixed beef cattle.

“We are one of the biggest poultry producers in the country and we have big fowl runs to accommodate large numbers of birds at any given time.

“We produce our own day-old chicks as we have about 5 000 parent chickens at the farm. Of the 5 000 parent chickens, 1 500 are cocks and the remainder are hens. We get 90 percent output from the parent chickens and some of them produce double-yoked eggs.

“The double yoked eggs are for the market as they are not ideal for producing day-old chicks,” said Mr Mukodza.

Before electricity challenges began wreaking havoc, they used to produce their own stockfeed as they have a milling plant. The milling plant used to run 24-hours, with workers undergoing eight hour shifts. They have now resorted to work during the night when electricity is available, but now buying concentrates which they mix with maize to produce stockfeed. There were also cooking oil producers and buyers from all over the country who came to buy from the farm.

As part of their value addition programme, they have a state-of-the-art abattoir with heavy duty blast freezers which can accommodate up to 4,5 tonnes of slaughtered chickens at any given time.

The farm also have two silos with a capacity to hold 720 tonnes of grain which they use to store maize and soya beans.

While the leafy Borrowdale low-density suburb is associated with elegance and extravagance, Rufaro has turned part of his property into a soya beans farm and a thriving crop is already in place.

As part of their knowledge acquisition, the farm will be sending a team for a horticulture expo in Germany running from February 5 to 7, 2020.

Rufaro participated at a ZimTrade-organised expo in the United Kingdom where he managed to market their horticultural products to the European market and already enquiries are being made.

“We also have a role to play in marketing our country’s agricultural produce. We will actively participate in international expos to increase our global market share. The future of the country is in us the youths, and we will continue being an inspiration to other youths there.

“We have hired a horticulture consultant to guide our operations because if we manage to get the much-needed foreign currency, this will help us to improve our operations and acquire more machinery. We are proud Zimbabweans and youths should know that hard work pays. Short-cuts in life are a cocktail for disaster.

“We are masters of our destinies. We will continue pursuing new avenues in farming, hence the decision to venture into dairy farming,” said Rufaro who recently married and is expecting his first child.