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Ashton Mutyavaviri
WITH slightly over a year left before the Utariri project ends, smallholder farmers situated along the Zambezi Valley are set to benefit from market linkages born from hosting agro-ecology seed and market fairs.
Utariri is a biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods programme established in 2022 and rolled out in the middle and lower Zambezi Valley landscape covering Mbire, Hurungwe, Muzarabani and Nyaminyami districts.
It aims to accelerate climate adaptation, diversify livelihoods and income options, improve biodiversity management and reduce extractive activities through community stewardship in the Zambezi Valley.
Communities living along wildlife corridors are affected by the adverse effects of climate change on food security and household nutrition perennially.
The Utariri programme is funded to the tune of US$6 million by the Embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe.
It will host the agro-ecology seed and market fairs on July 24, 25 and 30 in Mbire, Muzarabani and Hurungwe districts respectively with the aim of directly linking farmers to agro-value chain players.
Utariri monitoring evaluation and learning officer, Mrs Runyararo Motsi said the meetings would bring opportunities to farmers in those districts through face-to-face interactions with seed suppliers and various service providers.
“The interface will create discussions on agro-business packages, market linkages and contract farming so that farmers get to appreciate the different opportunities available for their produce. Results from the interface will guide Utariri on how farmers can be assisted for the 2024/25 agriculture season,” said Mrs Motsi.
The project seeks to promote agro-ecology and support smallholder farmers on sesame, mushrooms, cowpeas, sorghum, chilli, groundnuts, rosella, sunhem, lablab, quinoa and velvet beans production to boost their income generating revenue streams, she explained.
Mrs Motsi said the idea to choose the said crops, except mushroom, was not coincidental but guided by their drought-resistance characteristics.
Muzarabani and Mbire are dry regions and host a lot of small livestock units like goats, hence the need to capacitate farmers and boost the production of fodder crops in those districts to use as supplementary feed, she added.
“We are also looking to expand and do some follow up projects. We want to link our farmers with both input and output markets to keep the project alive even after its official conclusion,” she observed.
Such projects are coming at a time when Government is calling for strong partnerships in the agriculture sector to boost production and the economy at large.
Strategic partnerships inscribed in the National Development Strategy (NDS1) are vehicles to drive the country towards becoming an empowered and upper-middle-income society by 2030.
The projects are also complementing Government’s call rallying private sector players to support its rural development programmes.
This is in line with Government’s mantra: ‘Agricultural development must lead to rural industrialisation. Rural industrialisation will spearhead rural development, which will consequently catalyse and facilitate the attainment of Vision 2030.’
Online Reporter