25 Jul 2022

Teamwork is critical for the country’s growth and sustenance of the horticultural sector says, Ms Cecilia Mushininga, the Managing Director of Agrizor.

Addressing a conference for horticultural farmers in Sebele (BUAN) on Saturday July 23, organised by BUAN in conjunction with Syngenta and Agrizor, Ms Mushininga said the workshop  intended to impart skills that farmers would use to enrich their farming knowledge and grow in the various horticultural fields. 

Ms Mushininga said it was important for farmers to have a unionised and centralised platform for guiding their activities, adding that they had a challenge of producing accordingly and failing to sell their produce because they were not united. 

“We must do away with the current trend and focus on what will work better for us,” she said.

She said that some farmers’ efforts were going to waste as their products was not of the desired quality, therefore being rejected by potential consumers.

“Our interest, as Agrizor, in partnering with BUAN and others interested parties in the sector is to empower farmers to produce quality and make the desired income. 

There is no expert in farming, therefore let us engage each other continually and learn from each other,” Ms Mushininga said.

In addition, she said that even though they made efforts to engage farmers through such platforms, they were hesitant to attend.  She revealed that they had reached out to about 300 farmers, but even though most registered, they failed to attend.

Ms Mushininga advised those who attended the conference to share the knowledge with others in their respective regions. 

Meanwhile, she said it was important for farmers to stagger their production in order to have continuous and varied harvests throughout the year, instead of flooding the market with a single product at a go, resulting in great losses. 

“Understand the culture and dynamics of our industry, produce what is needed by the market and work towards a common goal,” said Ms Mushininga.

She also spoke against the emerging trend of associations fighting each other and therefore making farmers suffer in the process. Ends