Let us green Zimbabwe

As a people, we have always known the importance of land as a resource from which life itself is nurtured and sustained.

Land is inextricably linked to a people as it defines their being, culture, heritage and destiny.

We fought a consequential war with colonial settlers and paid a heavy price for more than a decade to reclaim it, which makes it all the more sacred and precious.

Its material contribution to our wellbeing as people and as a nation cannot be overemphasised.

It potentially employs 60-70 percent of our population and contributes about 40 percent − close to half − of our export revenue through cash crops such as cotton and tobacco, including horticultural produce.

For the wheels of industry to keep turning, agriculture should ideally supply 60 percent of raw materials, but more than 22 years of sanctions affected key sectors of our economy and made us import-dependent.

And the decline of agriculture meant as a country we spent our ever-shrinking foreign currency earnings from dwindling exports to buy critical goods and services, including raw materials for industry which no longer got support from external financiers, thus our balance of payment position deteriorated precipitously.

It, therefore, means restoring our economy to its past glory necessarily involves investing in our land.

Not only will this create jobs in the sector itself but in industry as well.

Rather than importing raw materials and haemorrhaging our foreign currency pursue, industry will have a ready and convenient supply from the local market.

The multiplier effect on the economy will be immense.

Encouragingly, the framework and blueprint to revive, restructure, reform, rebuild and transform our agriculture − the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy (AFSTS) (2020-2025) − is begin to bear fruit.

The initial target of growing the sector’s contribution to the economy to US$8,2 billion in 2025 from US$5,2 billion has already been achieved.

The target has since been revised upwards.

Production statistics for critical crops such as maize and wheat are also trending up.

But, behind such impressive statistics are communities that are beginning to benefit in a huge way.

We have seen how ordinary villagers in Matabeleland North are literally getting dividends from the 180-hectare Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme, which was launched by President Mnangagwa in September last year as a pilot project for an integrated business model to be replicated across 450 irrigation schemes around the country.

We have also seen it through villagers in Jinjika Village in Matabeleland South who recently opened bank accounts to receive payments for working at Sekusile-Makorokoro Nutrition Garden, a project that falls under the Presidential Rural Development Scheme.

Again, on Friday, the President’s busy schedule took him to Marondera, where an outgrower scheme that will incorporate villagers was launched, including a agro-industrial park run by Marondera University of Agriculture, Science and Technology (MUAST).

Both projects are supported by the recently completed Muchekeranwa Dam.

This is important.

But, while we have made significant headway, a lot more still needs to be done to feed ourselves and the region.

We have to double down on current efforts to realise the future that we envision.

The Tugwi-Mukosi masterplan has to be fast-tracked to open more irrigable land in Masvingo.

Lake Mutirikwi should also provide succour to the Lowveld, while the ambitious agricultural project in Kanyemba, Mashonaland Central, where swatches of land are being cleared, has to be quickly brought on stream.

Completion of Lake Gwayi-Shangani would help create a greenbelt from the waterbody to Bulawayo in the same way the 42km pipeline from Deka to Zambezi River will benefit parched villages in Hwange.

The incorporation of agricultural technologies, some of which are being developed and incubated in our institutions of higher learning, will naturally help us increase productivity.

Our economic growth and future wellbeing will to a large extent depend on agriculture performance.

It will also be a fitting way to honour our heroes and heroines, past and present, who sacrificed their life for us to regain this invaluable resource − land.

This is precisely what President Mnangagwa meant during his inauguration address in 2017 when he said: “Dispossession of our ancestral land was the fundamental reason for waging the liberation struggle. It would be a betrayal of the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives in our liberation struggle if we were to reverse the gains we have made in reclaiming our land.

Therefore, I exhort beneficiaries of the Land Reform Programme to show their deservedness by demonstrating commitment to the utilisation of the land now available to them for national food security and for the recovery of our economy.”

We are on the right path; all we need to do is to stay the course.