Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Government has mobilised a fleet of 16 000 tractors to spearhead land preparation for the upcoming 2025-2026 summer cropping season, as part of a comprehensive strategy to bolster national food security and agricultural productivity.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, who outlined the significant strides already made ahead of the planting period.
Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the 4th African Plant Breeders Association conference in Victoria Falls,
Minister Masuka said that Cabinet has already approved the ambitious summer plan.
“Cabinet approved the 2025-2026 summer plan. We said we aim to ensure that we produce 33 percent above our annual cereal requirement, above the 10 percent policy target,” said Dr Masuka.
Detailing the progress, Dr Masuka said remarkable achievements have been made in the Pfumvudza/Intwasa conservation agriculture programme, a cornerstone of the Government’s food security strategy.
“To date, we have made progress in Pfumvudza/Intwasa. We want to do 1 million hectares. Of that, 200,000 hectares will be maize. We have done now just over 5 million Pfumvudza plots against 3.4 million last year. So we are making very good progress. That will ensure that we have household food security,” he said.
Further elaborating on the national strategy, Dr Masuka emphasised the policy of agro-ecological tailoring, ensuring crops are suited to their regions.
“Secondly, we said we wanted agro-ecological tailoring of crops. And what is grown in a region is dependent on the exigencies of that region. So traditional grains in regions 3, 4, and 5.”
Dr Masuka also reported steady progress in expanding the country’s irrigation capacity to mitigate the effects of erratic rainfall.
“We decided to increase the area under irrigation and we are making steady progress because we are at 123,000 hectares and we hope that 275,000 and 100,000 hectares will be available for summer cereals,” he said.
To complement these efforts, the massive tractor mobilisation initiative is set to ensure vast tracts of land are prepared in time for the rains.
“Now, that must be complemented with additional land preparation and we have 16,000 tractors mobilised for this effort,” Dr Masuka confirmed.
The Government is also already moving critical inputs to Grain Marketing Board depots across the country to ensure timely distribution to farmers.
“We also are mobilising inputs for the presidential input scheme. In fact, we have started moving seed now. We have started moving fertilizer to the various GMB depots. Any distribution should start in the coming week,” he said.
With these multi-pronged interventions in place, Dr Masuka expressed confidence that the target for the 2025, 2026 season will be surpassed.
