adminDr Da Silva who arrived yesterday for a two-day visit is expected to hold meetings with agriculture experts. He said it was his first time in Zimbabwe and was also his first official visit after being elected FAO director general.
“I chose to start with Zimbabwe because it is the country where agriculture is very important,” he said.
He said it was part of FAO’s goals to empower Zimbabwe and reduce the challenges posed by climate change.
Dr Da Silva said two projects to empower Zimbabwe among other African countries were in the pipeline.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made, who welcomed Dr Da Silva, said the visit was very important to Zimbabwe.
“The visit comes at a critical time in the development of agriculture,” he said.
Minister Made said global warming and climate change were some of the challenges affecting small-scale farmers.
Later in the day, Dr Da Silva had a meeting with Minister Made, Minister of Local Government Rural and Urban Development Ignatius Chombo, Minister of Youth
Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Saviour Kasukuwere, Minister of Water Resources Development and Management Sipepa Nkomo and senior Government officials.
Said Minister Made: “We have discussed programmes to be intensified. We agreed on supporting the initiative of giving land to people as it lays the basis of our people especially small scale farmers.
“We also discussed challenges being faced by farmers especially input costs,” he said.
He said there was a time when fertiliser prices in Brazil shot up to an extent that the government had to look for other ways of addressing soil fertility. He said Government would also address post harvest handling of crops.
Dr Da Silva, a Brazilian was elected FAO director general on June 26 2011.
His term runs from January 1 2012 to July 31 2015.
In 2001, he led a team that designed and implemented Brazil’s successful “Zero Hunger” programme and in 2003 he was named special minister of food security and
the Fight against Hunger.
The “Zero Hunger” programme helped lift 28 million people out of extreme poverty and inspired a net set of public policies aimed at promoting economic and social development in Brazil.
Online Reporter