Chronicle Editor
Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Senior Reporter
Boreholes drilled by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) are expected to anchor the Presidential Rural Horticulture Transformation Plan in Jinjika Village, Mangwe District, Matabeleland South Province.
Zinwa drilled and equipped the solar powered borehole to supply water to the nutritional garden, fish ponds, dip tanks and potable water in the village.
The water authority is set to drill 35 000 boreholes accross the country.
In a post on their Twitter page, Zinwa said the boreholes would go a long way in alleviating water challenges and improving food security in rural communities.
“The boreholes will anchor the rural horticulture programme and also considerably reduce the distances rural communities are travelling to get drinking water,” read the post.
Government has since launched a plan to revolutionarise rural agriculture in a move projected to transform remote areas into exotic fruit production hubs.
Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa recently said Cabinet considered and approved the Report on the State of Preparedness for the 2021-2022 agricultural season and agricultural extension workers had already been geared for the implementation plan whose main aim is to sustainably increase crop production and productivity to meet and surpass the national requirements for both human consumption and industrial use.
“The plan will target priority fruit trees, namely: passion fruit (Granadilla), pecan nuts, apple, guava, mango, lemon, avocado pears and macadamia. Each targeted household will be given 10 trees of each fruit variety, depending on suitability of the fruit tree to the agro-ecological regions and potential income to be generated. The first phase running to December 2021 has a target of 500 000 seedlings,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
In addition, she said, a total of 35 000 gardens will be established and each will be equipped with a solar borehole, cattle water trough and an ablution facility while each garden will cater for a village, school or youth ward centre.
The orchards and gardens should, by 2030, be adding an average of US$2 000 a year to each rural family.
The horticulture recovery plan is part of Government initiatives under the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy (2020-2025) to transform agriculture from a US$5,2 billion to a US$8,2 billion sector, contributing 20 percent of GDP by 2025 in line with the vision of making Zimbabwe an upper middle income by 2030.
The State of Preparedness document for the 2021/22 summer cropping season states that: “There is need to provide additional resources to capacitate Zinwa to undertake accelerated irrigation development around major dams (154 00 hectares) and rural horticulture schemes through enhanced borehole rehabilitation and drilling by providing additional 10 rigs for conducting ancillary activities.” – @Yolisswa.
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