Zimbabwe: 18 Farmers Receive Implements Worth US $500 000

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 16 February 2008 02/19/2008

EIGHTEEN tobacco farmers drawn from the country's four provinces received implements worth US$500 000 from Gold Driven Investments this week. GDI, a tobacco contracting company that works in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, imported the equipment from China. The farmers, from Mashonaland West, East and Central as well as Manicaland provinces, are part of the more than 200 tobacco farmers who are working with the RBZ and GDI to buy machinery using their 20 percent foreign currency retention. Senior projects manager, Mr Simbarashe Gatsi said the first batch of the machinery consisted of 95 motor bikes and 25 electric generators a though other farming equipment was still coming. "In total we ordered 300 motor bikes, generators from 20kva, 60 kva, 90 kva and 100kva, 12 pick up trucks, 10 tractors and irrigation equipment. "This is an ongoing programme and we expect the remaining machinery to arrive by mid-March and these would be part of the second batch," Mr Gatsi said. Enditem