Online Reporter
DURING the five years of National Development Strategy 1 running from 2021 to last year, all provinces recorded significant growth, not just the industrial centres of Harare Metropolitan and Bulawayo Metropolitan that had tended to hog the growth in the past.
While all provinces have their strengths, Matabeleland North Province, for example, holding all the larger thermal power stations and mining almost all the coal, it was noticeable that almost every province had managed an increase in farm and mining output, sometimes large ones.
Besides the economic growth, there was a spread of development, including infrastructure such as roads, social capital investment in schools, clinics hospitals and other services that upgrade the lives of the people.
ZimStat has been monitoring the figures and keeping track of ups and downs within a wide range of headings.
People want to know where the progress is and how everyone benefits from this.
Even in metropolitan provinces, there is a range of industries that add to growth and they all need to be brought to account.
The Second Republic has been exceptionally keen on creating multiple revenue streams for the people, so we do not have just a maize or tobacco farmers or a gold miner but rather someone who, depending on climate indicators and what is physically available in their district, has a good idea of how to put a number of developments together to maximise their own income and quality of life.
We see a lot of this with social investment now done in a major way through devolution. The local communities are far more certain of where they need new schools or a new clinic and can, through their own contributions, stretch out the funds and get what they need where they need it.
The Government itself is willing to help investors choose the best areas for certain kinds of development. If you want to grow citrus, there are temperatures, suitable soils and access to irrigation that will make you crop a lot better or even possible. It will also be a good idea to have the right negotiations on giving access to the right land and to make sure that the processing plant can be next door, not 100km away in the wrong province.
Most of these issues can be sorted out by the investor, local or foreign, and the Government but with the local communities heavily involved and ready to benefit.
We also need to avoid over-specialisation in a province. We need a good mix, even when certain elements in that mix are fairly obvious. But one thing we have learned is that if you concentrate on one mineral, a slump in price can devastate a local economy. Trying to grow just one crop means that if the climate does not cooperate, a lot of people are thrust into poverty.
But when you mix income sources, and help people generate wealth in a number of ways, you can avoid most of the pitfalls and also build up community wealth and economic growth faster.
We talk about industries dominating Harare Metropolitan and Bulawayo Metropolitan, and big cities will tend to concentrate industry. But we can have a lot of other industrial developments outside the bid cities, especially when we are processing local products and the fruits of a diversified agriculture and mining.
If you go to a country like France you can see this, for example, the high-value products made in Champagne region from what were considered fairly dubious wines, but which worked out well when properly processed using added sugars and stored. In fact, in that area the farmers have long-term contracts to produce just three varieties of grape, the one the companies need, and sell all they have to the processing companies. The result is rich farmers and rich processing companies.
These sort of deals in citrus, other fruits, other crops and livestock products can create mutually beneficial value chains between farmers, sensitive crop processing industry and good marketing. But it does require that breadth of products and raw materials so that the right things are available in the right places at the right prices.
It appears a lot of our provincial development has been following these sort of chains, even if we can be in early stages just yet, but as farmers and processors see the benefits, we are likely to get a lot more and see pilot schemes grow, or perhaps just as importantly being added to broaden the range of products.
Sometimes we might have to go back to origins of some products. We started making citrus squashes from fresh fruit, we had four flavours, all using real fruit: orange, lemon, lemon barely and lime.
A lot of industry cut back on the range, but we could return for high valued exports if we do our research.
