Chronicle Editor
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Sunday News Reporter
COMMUNAL farmers, who constitute 70 percent of the maize producers as well as the country’s population should involve themselves and take charge of the agricultural and economic transformation by ensuring optimal production mostly from the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Speaking in Gweru last week, Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Government Minister, Dr Anxious Masuka said the 1,8 million families who benefited from the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme and other communal farmers will now be mainstreamed into the main economy as the country pursues its vision of moving into the permanent food security territory.
Dr Masuka said it was imperative and an obligation for the families who benefited from the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme and other communal farmers to contribute to the main agricultural production sector and be mainstreamed into the main economy.
He said agriculture remains one of the key sectors in the country’s quest towards achieving vision 2030 of becoming an upper middle-class economy saying the country should take advantage of a promising 2020-2021 farming season to end the perennial food insecurity.
Dr Masuka said the country should ensure optimal land utilisation so as to realise optimum yield in the wake of good rains that the country is receiving.
Dr Masuka said the country’s Agriculture Recovery Plan was well on course and challenged all State ministers to anchor their Provincial GDPs on agriculture.
“We have 1,8 million rural households representing 70 percent of the population who are involved daily in agriculture.
“For the attainment of vision 2030 therefore, they ought to be mainstreamed into the main economy so that they too are not spectators as we journey towards the attainment of the vision 2030. It is both a challenge and an obligation for us all to begin to make the systematic way forward to make sure we increase agricultural production or productivity and increase profitability on farms,” he said.
Dr Masuka said farmers should begin to take agriculture as a lucrative business riding on Government’s full support of the sector through various programmes such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa.
Dr Masuka said provinces were given targets under the 2020-2021 farming season and should take advantage of a promising farming season to achieve set targets as the country journey towards attaining the vision 2030.
“So, agriculture ought to be a viable and entertaining business. Agriculture is both an art and a science. For this season we have said we must individually and collectively assure this nation that we now begin to move into permanent food security territory and move away from the food insecurity situation we have been in the past. If we plan together, if we own the programmes, if we jointly monitor them, certainly the outcome will be what we desire.
We might not have the power to predict the future but we know that with sufficient planning, the future can unfold in the manner that we plan,” he said.
Dr Masuka said under the Government’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) agriculture was a very critical component towards the country’s development agenda.
He said provincial ministers will be holding interactive workshops to discuss issues where the sector can improve as the country gears towards a bumper harvest.
“At the inaugural meeting of Provincial Ministers and the Presidium, we requested Vice-President General Constantino Chiwenga to proffer his remarks and guidance then on what structure this interface ought to take and he eloquently gave us guidance on how we should move forward,” said Dr Masuka.
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