peterJudith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Government has reaffirmed its commitment to rolling out the youth quota system that will see youth farmers in the country getting at least 20 percent of all land that is being downsized and reallocated.
The move will capacitate them to continue playing a significant role in the agriculture sector which is contributing enormously to the recovery of the Zimbabwe economy.
According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the youths are defined as people between the ages of 15 to 35 years.
Young agriculture entrepreneurs continue to emerge in the country taking up farming as a viable career option.
This growing interest by the young people could contribute to food security in the country.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary, Dr John Basera said in the country, youths constituted a higher percentage of the population.
“I have never seen an economy which envisages to grow without 62 percent of its population.
Here in Zimbabwe the youths under the age of 35 constitute about 62 percent of our population.
We need to harness that demography into a demographic dividend which is very important for our economy.
We also need to harness and to tap into the enthusiasm, the energy, technology savvy, the computer Information Communication Technology savvy, experimentation savvy by our youths,” said Dr Basera.
He said with regards to access to land, youths were also in need of it and as Government they were rolling out the quota system.
Dr Basera said under the youth quota system, youths under the age of 35 were getting at least 20 percent of all land which was being downsized and reallocated.
He added: “We would need them to participate fully, significantly and meaningfully to primary agricultural production.”
The Permanent Secretary said not everyone necessarily needed to own a farm in order to do farming, but what was needed was access to land.
“So what we are doing as Government through the ministry is that we have amalgamated joint ventures and contract farming frameworks in 2020.
Investors to be or youths with resources can engage with farmers, the beneficiaries of the land reform who do have idle or derelict land and engage into primary production maybe bound by a joint venture agreement or arrangement which is supposed to be approved by the ministry,” he added.
Dr Basera said the reason why the ministry had to approve the joint ventures was because they administered land on behalf of the President, Government and the State.
He said it was also important that they approve the process so as to protect the investment, investor and land holder.
“We would want to protect all the parties and most importantly the investment, we do not want a situation whereby you enter into an agreement with a farmer without our knowledge as the Government and then somebody changes their mind and goal posts, thereby shortchanging the investor.
So we would want to curb and avert that for sanity to be built across all the joint ventures,” added Dr Basera.
He said through contract farming, one could pull together resources or raise funds and still participate in primary production by contracting farmers.
Dr Basera noted the agricultural value chain was long enough to accommodate everyone as others could also participate in the downstream or upstream sides of the primary production.
“You can participate in input distribution, input trading, commodity grain trading, processing, value addition, beneficiation.
All these are nodes across the chain which is very long enough such that not everybody should be a farmer,” he said.
Online Reporter