Story by Tafara Chikumira, Midlands Bureau Chief
THE Kwekwe Grain Marketing Board expansion project is on course, amid indications that the new silos and driers will be complete by March this year.
The project will see the depot erecting seven new silos and driers that are meant to service the Kwekwe community particularly on wheat and grain storage as it was difficult to get such services in the locality.
Constructors at the site are confident of completing works within the targeted timeframe.
“We are very excited by the progress we are making at this end. We started the groundbreaking in June last year and we have so far managed to complete 80 percent of the civil works which started in September. We are going up with our silos and one of the structures is now 60 percent complete and we hope that by the end of February, we should be done,” Engineer Genius Mutasa said.
Farmers are anticipating benefits from the expansion exercise.
“It was very difficult for us as we used to go to Kadoma to get driers and the silos. We are very excited by the development in our locality as it is already changing the face of Kwekwe for the better,” said one farmer.
“It was indeed a toll order for us to get our produce to the nearest site. Things were just but difficult as we had to work very hard to send our produce to the nearest depot,” added another.
The community has also benefitted from the project, which has created much-needed employment.
The new silos have the capacity of handling 56 000 metric tonnes of grain and the driers can process between 45 000 and 50 000 tonnes of grain per day.
