Govt outline new agric strategy

CLOUDINE MATOLA

Government has declared that Zimbabwe no longer aspires to be a breadbasket for anyone, instead setting its sights on becoming a regional agro-industrial hub by leveraging its fertile soils, favourable climate, strategic logistics, and skilled workforce, Business Times can report.

The remarks by Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka signal a deliberate and strategic policy shift, one that seeks to move the economy away from low-value primary production towards a more sophisticated model anchored on processing, beneficiation and industrial integration.

This transition, Dr Masuka argues, is central to Zimbabwe’s broader ambition of attaining upper middle-income status by 2030, as the country attempts to extract greater value from its agricultural base while building resilient, export-oriented value chains.

“Zimbabwe does not wish to become a breadbasket of anyone, let alone the Southern African region. We have moved beyond that,” Dr Masuka said.

“Our focus is to become an agro-industrial hub, to innovate and to drive value addition that accelerates industrialisation in pursuit of Vision 2030.”

For decades, Zimbabwe’s agricultural narrative has been shaped by its capacity to produce at scale, often measured in maize output and tobacco volumes.

But policymakers now appear intent on rewriting that script, arguing that exporting raw commodities leaves the country exposed to price volatility while limiting job creation and broader economic spillovers.

At the centre of this recalibration is the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy, the sector’s roadmap under the National Development Strategy 2, which runs to 2030.

The framework shifts emphasis from yields to value chains, positioning agriculture not as an end in itself but as a catalyst for industrial growth.

Dr Masuka framed the sector as a powerful economic multiplier, capable of driving activity across manufacturing, logistics and exports if properly structured.

“Agriculture is not just about food production,” he said.

“It is a cause factor and a multiplier for the rest of the economy. If we get agriculture right, we are likely to be on the right path.”

The stakes are particularly acute in a country where roughly two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture for survival.

For the government, the sector is not only an economic lever but also a social imperative.

Yet Dr Masuka said the current model, largely subsistence-based and vulnerable to climate shocks, is no longer tenable.

“Agriculture is the means to uplift rural communities, but it must be agriculture done differently,” he said, stressing that farming must be treated as a business at every level, regardless of scale.

That transformation is being shaped against a backdrop of intensifying climate risk. Zimbabwe faces increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, with projections suggesting significant declines in rain-fed agricultural output by the end of the decade.

For policymakers, this has sharpened the urgency to invest in climate-smart systems and reduce dependence on unpredictable weather cycles.

Masuka pointed to irrigation development as a critical pillar of the new strategy, signalling an openness to private sector participation in financing large-scale water infrastructure. Without such investment, he warned, productivity gains will remain constrained and the broader industrial ambitions difficult to realise.

Equally central to the government’s vision is value addition, a long-articulated but unevenly implemented objective.

By processing agricultural products locally, authorities hope to capture greater economic value, deepen industrial capacity and create jobs across the supply chain.

“We must think beyond production,” Dr Masuka said.

“Farmers must participate across the value chain and capture more of the value they produce.”

The transition, however, is fraught with familiar challenges. Zimbabwe’s policy landscape has often been characterised by strong strategic intent but inconsistent execution, with infrastructure deficits, limited access to affordable capital and regulatory uncertainty undermining progress.

Even so, government officials argue that recent improvements in agricultural output and renewed private sector interest suggest a window of opportunity.

Masuka linked current economic performance to stronger activity in agriculture, insisting that the sector remains central to the country’s growth trajectory.

He outlined five guiding principles underpinning the transformation: treating agriculture as a business at all levels; adopting climate-smart practices; accelerating irrigation development through private investment; and prioritising value addition and beneficiation.

“The first principle is that agriculture should be a business at every level, irrespective of scale,” Dr Masuka said.

“The second is climate-smart agriculture, as Zimbabwe positions itself to lead in sustainable production systems. Third is accelerated irrigation development, we invite the private sector to invest in the sector as we target expanding irrigated land towards two million hectares.

“The other critical aspect is value addition and beneficiation. Farmers must move up the value chain and secure a greater share of the value they produce.”

Taken together, the strategy signals a fundamental reimagining of Zimbabwe’s agricultural economy, from a volume-driven sector vulnerable to external shocks, to a resilient, industrially integrated system designed to anchor long-term growth.