Govt calls for strong partnerships in agric sector

Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent

The Government has called for strong partnerships in the agriculture sector to boost production and the economy at large.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Dr John Basera said this recently at the Zimbabwe Agriculture Extension Inservice Training Application awards ceremony.

Dr Basera said that strategic partnerships inscribed in the National Development Strategy (NDS1) were vehicles to drive the country into becoming an upper-middle-income society by 2030.

“All these successes recorded in our ministry result from the private-public partnerships we had. We need to nurture more partnerships in order to experience growth and transformation.

“We have partners who supported us with motorbikes and some tablets amongst many other things. We would never have achieved this alone as Government.”

Dr Basera said more extension officers were in need of phone tablets and other prerequisite needs as the Government scales up its efforts in capacitating them.

He said agriculture occupied a central place in Zimbabwe’s economy and had the potential to significantly reduce poverty, enhance economic growth and entrench economic stability.

Through several initiatives by Government and its partners, farmers planted a total of 78 000 hectares of the winter wheat crop, itself a record achievement in terms of the previous hectarage put under the strategic key grain crop.

According to projections about 380 000 tonnes of cereal is expected to be harvested, which is 20 000 tonnes more than the national requirement.

The significant increase in hectarage for winter wheat was made possible through Government programmes that include Pfumvudza/Intwasa, the Presidential wheat scheme and the agro yield initiative.

Equally, the Food Contractors Association, which is a private sector-driven initiative, played a key role after the Government mandated it to produce 40 percent of the national requirement.

The private players planted 25 000 hectares against the target of 23 000 hectares.

In terms of maize production for the upcoming summer, the Government is expecting to cultivate 1, 9 million hectares of maize and produce 3,2 million tonnes of maize against a national requirement of 2,2 million tonnes.