Londile Moyo
Theseus Mauruki Shambare at ZITF, BULAWAYO
FOR generations, Zimbabwe’s rural communities have fed the nation.
They tilled the land, raised livestock, harvested fruit and supplied raw produce that often travelled elsewhere for processing, packaging and profit.
The villages produced.
Others benefited further down the chain.
That old order is now facing disruption.
Across Zimbabwe, a quiet shift is taking shape — one that could redraw the country’s economic map.
Villages once seen only as centres of production are being recast as hubs of industry, exports and innovation.
At the 2026 Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) laid out that vision in bold terms: rural Zimbabwe is no longer just growing food. It is preparing to compete.
“Our mandate is very clear,” said ARDA Commercial Director Mr Dominic Sadziwa during an interview at the authority’s exhibition stand.
“Our mandate is to spearhead rural development and industrialisation while ensuring that the nation is food, feed, fibre, biofuels and seed secure.”
Those words reflect a broader national ambition — to turn agriculture into an engine of jobs, exports and industrial growth.
Villages as business centres
At the centre of ARDA’s strategy are Village Business Units, designed to bring commercial activity closer to where crops are grown and livestock is raised.
The logic is simple: if wealth begins in the soil, more of it should remain where the soil is worked.
Instead of sending raw produce away and importing finished products back at higher prices, rural communities can process, package and market goods nearer to home.
“We have now gone a step further to ensure that rural development comes to fruition,” said Mr Sadziwa.
“There has to be rural industrialisation.”
That means more than farming.
It means warehouses, cold rooms, transport networks, agro-processing plants and jobs that keep young people economically active in their home districts.
The Norton signal
Few examples illustrate that transition better than ARDA’s revived processing plant in Norton.
There, tomatoes, guavas and mangoes sourced from farmers are being transformed into finished products rather than left to perish in the field or flood informal markets.
“We have reinvigorated one of our SBUs, Best Food Processors, where we are processing fruits from rural farmers,” said Mr Sadziwa.
“We have a big plant in Norton that processes on average 100 000 kilogrammes of either tomatoes, mangoes or guavas a day, of course on two shifts.”
For farmers, that kind of demand creates something more valuable than a once-off sale: certainty.
A guaranteed market encourages production, supports incomes and reduces the painful losses many growers face when bumper harvests meet weak buying systems.
Exporting more than raw hope
ARDA says Zimbabwean produce is already reaching foreign markets.
“At the moment, we are exporting macadamia nuts, pecan nuts, avocados to Netherlands and China,” said Mr Sadziwa.
Those are not easy markets to enter.
They demand quality, consistency and compliance with strict standards.
Breaking into them suggests Zimbabwean agriculture is increasingly capable of meeting premium international requirements.
Then comes an even more intriguing export story.
Medicinal herbs grown in Mushumbi Pools and Dande are now being sold to Germany.
“You can take off your peppermint, you can take off your dandelion, you can take off your gotu kola, you can take off your rosella tea,” he said.
“We are exporting this into Africa and beyond.”
It is the sort of development that changes perceptions.
Remote rural communities are no longer isolated endpoints.
They are becoming origins of globally traded products.
Farming gets smarter
At the ARDA pavilion stood one machine that attracted constant attention — a large agricultural drone.
It symbolised a new reality: Zimbabwean farming is entering the age of precision technology.
“As ARDA, we have adopted the smart way of farming,” said Mr Sadziwa.
The drones are already being used for spraying chemicals, applying fertiliser and sowing seed.
“We are using drones basically for three things,” he explained.
“For chemical spraying as we control pests like Fall Armyworm, we are using the drone to spread fertiliser. We are also using the drones to do the seeding.”
In a sector where timing can determine profit or loss, drones save labour, improve efficiency and cover large areas quickly.
Advice by mobile phone
Technology is not being reserved for large farms alone.
ARDA has introduced a Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform — *887# — allowing farmers to access agronomic advice using ordinary mobile phones.
“We have also come up with a USSD platform that we are using to disseminate information to farmers from the comfort of their homes,” said Mr Sadziwa.
For farmers far from extension offices, simple tools like these can make a major difference — from knowing when to plant, to how to manage pests, to where markets are moving.
Rewriting the rural script
What is emerging is larger than a farming programme.
It is a reimagining of rural Zimbabwe’s role in the national economy.
For too long, rural areas have often been described through shortage: lack of jobs, weak infrastructure, migration and drought.
But another picture is beginning to form — orchards linked to factories, herbs linked to Europe, drones over wheat fields, digital advice in farmers’ pockets and village producers connected to export supply chains.
Challenges remain.
Industrialisation needs power, roads, irrigation, finance and stable policy support.
Yet the direction of travel is becoming clearer.
At ZITF this year, ARDA’s message is unmistakable:
Zimbabwe’s villages are no longer waiting at the edge of the economy.
They are stepping to the centre of it.
Online Reporter