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Michael Tome
Business Reporter
THE Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Ministry says it is confident agriculture will contribute 21 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, with notable strides having been recorded in tobacco, maize and wheat yields.
In 2022, the agriculture sector contributed 12 percent to GDP.
The sector made a leap during the 2020-2021 cropping season, where it grew by 36 percent. It has since been growing at the rate of about 6 percent to surpass the targeted US$8,2 billion agriculture economy initially targeted for 2025.
This sustained growth has made the captains of the sector optimistic of attaining the envisioned contribution to GDP.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the country’s economy, as 61 percent of Zimbabwe’s population resides in rural areas and 90 percent of them rely on agriculture. Sustained growth of the sector is expected to reduce poverty.
So far this season, the tobacco sub-sector has sold 292,58 million kilogrammes. On day 95, it had already smashed the 259 million record set in 2019. The marketing season closes on July 31 and mop-up sales are planned for August 30.
A target of 300 million kilogrammes by 2025 had been set.
In terms of maize production, the country has managed to be food-secure, especially on account of better output from the 2022/2023 season, which was to the tune of 2,3 million tonnes. This was in addition to about 300 000 tonnes of traditional grains.
Maize is the country’s staple food and 2,2 million tonnes are required for human consumption and stock feeds per year. As such, Zimbabwe is looking at exporting 40 000 tonnes of grain to Rwanda. It also plans to export wheat to Mozambique.
On the other hand, the horticulture sector has seen immense growth in recent years, particularly through Government efforts.
Treasury last year announced disbursement of the US$30 million Horticulture Export Revolving Fund, which is expected to go a long way in enhancing the sector’s value chain activities.
Through such efforts under the Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan, the sector has seen growth to around US$70 million in exports in 2022, from between US$15 million and US$20 million previously.
Speaking at the Stratus Commodity Fund (SCF) pre-listing event, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Dr John Basera said agriculture will power the country’s journey to Vision 2030.
“Agriculture is a sector whose importance cannot be overemphasised, in terms of GDP contribution to the economy. Agriculture stood at 12 percent in 2022, so our target by year 2025 is to contribute about 20 percent-21 percent, and employment creation to grow by 6percent-7 percent.
“In terms of maize production, we have about 3 million metric tonnes of cereals against the national requirement of 2, 2 million tonnes.
“So, we can safely say that we are there. In fact, we will be exporting 40 000 metric tonnes of grain to Rwanda and maybe this year around October, November, we should be exporting our first tonne of wheat to Mozambique and other countries in the region, because, as Africa, we have agreed to look inward as a continental economy,” said Dr Basera.
Through the National Development Strategy 1, Government seeks to grow food self-sufficiency from the current level of 45 percent to 100 percent and reduce food insecurity from the 2020 peak of 59 percent to less than 10 percent by 2025.
Dr Basera indicated that the agriculture sector has been performing well due to the religious implementation of sectoral and subsectoral blueprints.
He added that the successes also stemmed from the support of the private sector and financial institutions.
“Government is encouraged by the interest by the private sector to finance agriculture and stands ever ready to provide any support necessary to crowd in more private sector participation as we Go-for-Growth towards Vision 2030.
“This is expected to ramp up the country’s food security and more emphasis is being channelled towards the production of the main crops to improve local food, feed and oil sufficiency in the country. I would like to say you are doing incredibly well.
“In the soya bean space, we are also going for growth and our numbers are showing that this year, we must expect something like 100 000 tonnes. Of course, we are still shy of meeting our national requirement of 220 000 tonnes.”
Dr Basera also highlighted the successes being recorded in the livestock and cotton sub-sectors.
The cotton sub-sector last year grew to realise US$80 million in exports, he added.
He said it was unfortunate that the livestock sector had, in recent years, been hit by diseases.
The Government was, however, now on top of the situation.
He added that the sector was now realising 2 percent-3 percent growth per year.
“The January disease claimed about half a million of our national herd since the 2015 season but we are witnessing some positive growth trends after the scare from the disease and other tick-borne diseases.
“We are now on top of the situation. We have made quite a number of interventions, including the Presidential Tick Grease Programme. As such, January disease cases are going down.”
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