ALVINA CHIWANIKA
MIRROR REPORTER

SHURUGWI – Shurugwi businessman, Nicholas Gara is poised to revolutinalise Zimbabwe agriculture by processing his crop and coming up with the final product there in the fields.
Nicholas Gara who is expecting 47 tonnes of maize this year despite a ravaging drought told The Mirror that he acquired a machine to process sunflowers right there in the fields and produce oil.
This is not common in Zimbabwe and will likely be the first such venture.
Gara owns a farm at William resettlement 25 kilometres west of Shurugwi and he is also the owner of Nichrut Lodge and various mines in Shurugwi.
He attributes his good maize crop this year to flood irrigation made possible by drawing water from a nearby mine.
The 38 hectres farm produces crops like rapoko, beans, ground nuts, maize and sunflowers. It also creates quite a lot of employment for the local communities.
“My aim is to industrialise, starting in the field and ending the whole process in the fields. I have procured a machine that will allow us to press sunflower seed into oil which will then be sold to the local community and also used at my hotel. This is a major step towards the farm’s goal which is self-sufficiency and food security,” said Gara.
He expects to host the district agricultural field day for the sixth time this year because of his major successes.
“We are drawing water from the mine which is 800m away from the fields and irrigating. As you can see we are expecting a bumper harvest of 47 tonnes. In each field we have 100 cobs per line, times 45 lines. We expect to harvest 8 tonnes of sunflowers,” said Gara.
Collet Mapepa, the farm manager said that they started planning for the season as soon as they heard that there will be an El Nino induced drought.
“We got it from the Met Office that there would be drought and we started ploughing on October 8, 2023. We placed our emphasis on irrigation. We also grew drought resistant crops like sorghum and rapoko to feed our road runners which are 300,” said Mapepa.