adminAshley Mujoma
Government has urged people to plant more trees to help fight decimation of livelihoods due to climate change.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr John Basera, said this at a fruit tree plantation field day held in Murewa district.
He said trees are life as they help to sink most greenhouse gases causing global warming.
“The beauty of growing fruit trees is the double deal in carbon sequestration as well as selling of the fruits to sustain livelihoods.
“Once the trees are established, then good agricultural practices are required so that they do not become hosts and building zones for pests and diseases,” he said.
He also gave guarantees to fruit farmers that the market for fruits was available.
“However, you can only export what has been produced. In this context, we are required to green our homes with fruit trees. The market is there.
“As a country, we are emphasising moving up the value chain (value addition) to retain more value locally and enjoy better prices.
“This presents huge opportunities in the areas of installing cold chain systems, opening up aggregation centres and other marketing and trade services to complete the fruit value chain.
“It’s high time we reclaim the position we have lost to South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and countries who are seemingly doing better than us at the moment.
“It all starts with our vision, goals and an enabling environment to achieve the right quantities and the mandatory and voluntary standards as required by the destination markets of our fruits,” he said.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter