TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) says it is working to complement government efforts to achieve comprehensive agriculture and food systems reforms to ensure food sufficiency and nutrition security.
ZAS president, Ngoni Kudenga, who spoke at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Media Awards (ZAMA), which was held virtually last week, said the society will implement reforms in a bid to achieve the agriculture and food systems transformation strategy for the National Development Strategy 1.
The agriculture sector contributes more than 15% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“We all know that agriculture drives the Zimbabwean economy and accounts for 15-18 % of the country’s GDP.
“It contributes 23% to the total formal employment and provides livelihood to the majority of our population in rural areas. Agriculture value chain employment supports a third of the country’s population with the sector supplying 63% of industrial raw materials,” Kudenga said.
Kudenga, who is also a partner at BDO Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe added: “Like everyone else, the ZAS is excited this year with the good harvest and the prospects for agriculture to raise incomes.
“We are working to complement government efforts towards achieving the agriculture and food systems transformation strategy which comprises a double prompt approach namely agriculture recovery plan and the livestock growth plan to achieve a prosperous diverse, sustainable and competitive agriculture sector, ensuring food sufficiency and nutrition security. Special mention goes to our adjudication committee which has done a fantastic job of going through each and every entity to come up with the best.”
Speaking at the same meeting, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services minister Monica Mutsvangwa, said the country had good yields during the 2020/21 agricultural season due to government initiatives such as the Pfumvudza/Intwasa, and the Presidential inputs programme
“The harvest (records) which guarantees food security for the nation across the agricultural sector be it maize, tobacco or small gains have been broken thanks to the government initiatives such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa and Presidential scheme inputs,” Mutsvangwa said.
She added: “Despite the limitations imposed by Covid-19, 2021 is therefore a memorable year for the ZAMA award.
“It’s a year which has underlined Zimbabwe’s ability to galvanise its potential to produce maximally.
“In the process of that success we have created a narrative that has restored our status as the bread basket of Southern Africa with good rains and equally good planning, input logistics, planting, weeding, harvesting and marketing strategies.”
Last year, the government introduced the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme to counter climate change-induced weather patterns that had seen the country enduring successive years of drought that resulted in poor harvests.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister Douglas Karoro said the bumper harvest this year of 2.8m tonnes of maize and 360 000 metric tonnes of traditional grains will save the country over US$300m.
Despite the adverse effect of Covid-19 on some sectors of the economy, agriculture has been the bright spark that has driven economic performance alongside mining,” Karoro said.
