Honde Valley haven for national sparkle

In my recent and first visit to Honde Valley, Mutasa North district, I emerged a proud Zimbabwean citizen who was equipped with new knowledge on how rich our nation is.

I had an over 300km driving experience from Harare as i found myself negotiating sharp curves, up-hills and down-hills as I mingle through the interlocking spurs, inselbergs, escarpments and pedestals which characterises the area. In the course of executing this amazing process, I simultaneously I was enjoying the delightful view of superb scenery of the spectacular terrain, and the fresh environment.

Throughout the way I could see scattered homesteads located at unimaginable sites, some perched precariously on hill-tops and hill-sides. This added marvel and excitement to my mental faculties which were recording new dimensions to my life experiences to broaden my horizons.
It was so impressive to eyewitness the imposing vegetation which is mainly composes of commercial wattle and pine tree plantations which dominate the place. Besides nearly every family cherishes the natural endowment of a vast array of fruits which range from bananas, avocado pears to mangoes, in addition to perennial garden productions which are continuous throughout the year in which they grow quality pears, cassava, vegetables.

Pungwe River which cuts across the area provides the life-line of survival for the entire population resident on this part of the country. Apart from tapping water from Pungwe River, there are numerous streams and springs from which water oozes out naturally to supply water to cater household needs. These are also indispensible sources of water to prop-up the agricultural life-styles of the Honde valley dwellers that are always on their toes working on the land all year round.

As I was passing through Hauna Business Centre, it was quite exhilarating to observe farmers and/or villagers loading and transporting their farm and garden produce to markets in Mutare and Harare. This enabled me to realise that no-one goes desperate here as everyone can invest their energies to producing at least something for them to eke out a decent living in spite the cry for jobs by the majority in the country.

I proceeded and drove through Muparutsa, Pungwe River Bridge till I got to Zindi Business Centre. I was mesmerised by entering the rapidly flourishing Eastern Highlands Estates. The estate is a fully fledged tea production establishment for export to the outside world. This is certainly a cash-cow for forex inflows in the country.

A drive through the estate gave me a refreshing mind of how best we can resuscitate the lost legacy of the agrarian economy which we commanded for centuries in this country. We have the capacity and the potential to do so now with no impediments at all.

It is quite prudent that the Ministry of Agriculture should do all its best to empower the residents of Honde Valley by deploying more horticulturists to assist the small subsistence farming practices in the area and upgrade it to commercial productions.

This area has full potential to intensify its operations and establish full scale productions which match the pre-existing commercial farming models which was dominated by the white minority commercial farmers in the past.

 This is a feasible agricultural strategy, bearing in mind that the soils here are extremely fertile, and there is unlimited free flow of water which can be harnessed for large scale irrigation without need for contemplating the construction of dams.

I visualise a real transformation if government considers possible commercialisation of the agricultural productions in this area. This would in reality create another revenue base by ensuring that all the products are grown commercially to satisfy export quality standards for an international market.

I continued with my excursion passing through Eastern Highlands Estates until I got to Nyamhingura Hydro-electric Power station. What a wonder which came into sight? I saw a privately owned small, but state of the art hydro-power station generating electricity for feeding into the national grid.

A chat with monitors of the power station enabled me to realise that this plant generates a maximum of 1,1 megawatts at its peak, and a minimum of 200 kilowatts depending on the water levels in Nyamhingura River in the course of the year.

The most captivating aspect I discovered at the power is the fact that the same owners have a total of five similar projects which are fully operational in the Honde Valley at the moment. According to the monitors I talked to at the site, their biggest plants generates up to 20 megawatts. Their top priority is focused on ensuring that the Eastern Highlands Estate receives adequate electricity to promote the continuous production of tea, and the excess power is sold to ZESA.

Government and private players are also challenged to use this as a bench-mark to come up with similar projects to sustain the national power needs. Certainly if such small projects are established in almost every community with the right landscape, we will surely end the electricity shortages which are bedevilling us at this point in time.

In my opinion, Honde Valley is a model place which can be enhanced to enrich our people and alleviate poverty in a big way if sufficient attention is paid to this area. The same should also apply to other areas which have identical conditions which can be utilised to transform human lives.