daniel chigunwe
Ivan Zhakata-Herald Correspondent
Agricultural joint ventures between land owners and investors were key in developing the country’s economy and the attainment of the Vision 2030 agenda, the Government has said.
Speaking at the launch of the inaugural Joint Venture and Investment hosted by the Federation of Young Farmers Clubs in Zimbabwe Trust in Harare this week, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands Agriculture Fisheries Water and Rural Development, Dr John Basera, said joint ventures were critical in creating an interface between investors and land owners.
Dr Basera said a joint venture was a framework to lure more investors into the agriculture space to consolidate the gains of the land reform.
“As Government, we are encouraging young farmers to enter into joint ventures so that we are able to harness and unlock the endowment potential so that we build competitive advantages, financial advantages at farmhold and household level so that we are able to optimise land and resource utilisation.
“This is what we all need so that we take issue around value creation. Value creation is very important especially in light of objectives of the Vision 2030 agenda as pronounced by the President,” he said.
“Vision 2030 is all about incomes but incomes dovetail from value creation so we need value creation. Thus we shall create value at farmhold and household level we need to harness that God-given endowment in the form of land so that we create even more value.”
Dr Basera said the joint ventures framework was a critical platform in terms of creating an interface between investors-to-be and land owners.
“We have two situations here, we have a farmer who has got land but does not have the much needed capital or the financial capacity to farm and harness that resource to build competitive advantage and financial advantages. We also have somebody or an investor-to-be who is looking for a piece of land and does have the capital to invest on that piece of land. “Basically the joint venture platform is a platform where, which is which, making between these two situations and this is what we think is agriculture because as agriculture at the moment we do have some challenges especially with regards to access finance. So this joint venture is a framework to lure more investors into the agriculture space.”
He said they were on a spree to disseminate the message and awareness with regards to the importance of joint ventures and needed to get to a point where people do not need to own a piece of land to farm on it.
Online Reporter