THE Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) is targeting to export about 25 to 30 tonnes of rock melon to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this year, NewsDay Business can report.This comes after the university, through the help of ZimTrade, exported eight tonnes of rock melon to Dubai under the national trade development and promotion cluster programme.
The university started its export drive with two hectares and is planning to upscale to five hectares.
CUT farm general manager Oswel Ushe told NewsDay Business during a tour of the farm on Wednesday that the university was embracing innovative agriculture.“The next production will be done by the end of February. We have already done the land preparation. We need to plant the last cycle of the melons before the frost period,” he said.“On our first cycle, we did extremely well, and we still have some of the products we think are still going to be sold, we are just waiting for follow-ups.
“To date, we have already exported eight tonnes and there are still more refrigerated and en route to the market. We are going to add up the figures later. This year, we anticipate exporting about 25 to 30 tonnes of our product. The buyers were saying that they were even ready to buy up to 100 tonnes and this is just a single buyer.”
He said they are planning on a 10-interval cycle this year, that is, planting monthly except during the frost months which are May and June. This, however, depends on the demand for the crop throughout the year, Ushe said.
“The target for this year is to get up to five hectares and we just must observe our market and see where we will get more money. We can plant over a two-week interval or a month,” he said.
“If we stagger by a month, it means we have 10 cycles over the year and we do not plant over the two frost months [May and June]. But, the demand for our product is the one that is going to determine the cycles that we are going to have.
“We anticipate engaging more buyers and when we get more buyers, that means we need to grow more. We had planted two hectares, and the buyer was willing to take all of it. It is a plant that only takes 90 days, and this plant is a good candidate for any grower in this area. We have the land and the good weather and environment for the crop and it needs to be taken advantage of.”
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In an interview, Fungai Chatiza, one of the senior lecturers at the university, said the rock melon project was started with approximately US$50 000 per hectare, funded by the University.
“Going into the future, we need to work on having cold rooms. There is a need for a cold chain to be able to preserve the produce before we transport it either by sea or air.
This will save us from post-harvest losses. The other project, artificial insemination, was funded for about US$300 000 for it to be established,” she said.“When it comes to funding, we have been getting a lot of funding and assistance from the government but this rock melon project has been wholly funded by the university to date, but we have been getting a lot of assistance from the government for most of our projects through the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.”
The university has plans to establish an export hub that will be used to teach other farmers how to export their products.Another senior lecturer Robert Masundire said Zimtrade assisted them in acquiring the seeds for the rock melon, which are not readily available in the country.
“Through their support, this project is here today. It’s not easy to replant the seeds from our produce, though we have collected many seeds. We are going to use the seeds for other projects. We have tried to plant the seeds from our produce, and they have germinated, but we are not sure if it’s going to remain true to type,” he said.
Masundire said the university is also on a recycling drive where they are using organic waste to feed maggots named black soldier fly, which is later used as a protein supplement to animals at the university.
The university is also into fish production.
