Govt to empower 9,2m individuals in rural areas

Enacy Mapakame Business Reporter

THE Government has started an ambi- tious programme seeking to economically empower over 9 million individuals in rural areas through various projects being rolled out as part of climate-proofed smart agri- culture initiatives.

Through the Ministry of Lands, Agri- culture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, the initiatives are aimed at transforming rural communities from mere subsistence farming into agriculture business hubs.

The initiatives will also transform the country from being a net importer of food, a challenge prevalent across the continent. Africa is a net importer of food, spend- ing about US$35 billion annually on food imports despite being endowed with vast arable land and accounting for 60 percent of the global uncultivated land.

Some of the Government’s initiatives include the cotton production scheme targeting 500 000 households in rural areas.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said the initiatives will ensure food self-sufficiency for the country from grassroots levels, that is rural communi- ties, which constitute about 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s total population.

Statistics show that rural communities have over 3 million households supporting 9,2 million individuals. Dr Masuka said

this scenario created scope for the Gov- ernment through his ministry to support rural development initiatives in agriculture while driving the sector into an 18 percent gross domestic product (GDP) contributor annually.

“We cannot talk of an agriculture-backed economy without including the 9,2 million people in rural areas and the Government has moved to remove dependency among them and transform agriculture into proper businesses,” he said at the Global Renais- sance Investments (GRI) Smart Farming Indaba and Awards Dinner in Victoria Falls last week.

Dr Masuka said this in a statement delivered on his behalf by Mr Abraham Mashumba, a senior official from his min- istry.

“On rural development, which is the lat- est component added to the ministry, we are pre-occupying ourselves with food security, nutrition security, rural development and eradication of poverty among our people.

“Our vision as a ministry is crystalised in six areas including industrialisation and value addition, economic transformation, promotion of exports, poverty reduction and job creation,” he said.

Agriculture accounts for about 67 percent of employment in general and an estimated 25 percent of formal employment in the country.

The sector also provides about 60 per- cent of the raw materials required in the manufacturing industry.

One of the initiatives the ministry is working on is a borehole drilling pro- gramme targeting 35 000 rural communi- ties across the country.

This programme will enable communi- ties to develop horticulture as well as fishery projects. These projects will be replicated across all other communities in the country as initiatives to boost their incomes and graduate them from subsistence producers into businesses.

Dr Masuka, however, acknowledged the fact that small holder farmers faced chal- lenges in accessing markets and funding for their projects due to lack of collateral.

He said land ownership and security tenure issues were affecting bankability of agriculture projects, an area the Govern- ment is seized with, as efforts to address the challenge.

2 percent to direct formal employment, and 11 percent national income (DGP and GNI).

He said these levels of contribution are on the upper end of the contribution ranges for Middle Income and Lower Income economies and the Zimbabwean mining industry’s contribution to the economy is generally higher than the aver- age for Sub-Saharan countries with significant mining activities.

Economist Dr Prosper Chitambara said due to the investments, Zimbabwe’s platinum production will improve significantly to match the levels of South Africa and Russia.

“This is good for the economy in terms of the whole macro-economic variables such as production output, economic performance, employment creation and generation of foreign currency,” he said.

He added that the country will need to con- tinuously enhance the processing capacity to preserve as much value within the economy.