Online Reporter
Business Reporter
Zimbabwe must leverage its agricultural resources, strategic location and human capital to transition into a regional agro-industrial hub, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka has said.
Minister Masuka said the transition would be critical to unlocking higher agricultural productivity, expanding agribusiness and growing Zimbabwe’s contribution to regional food security.
He was speaking at the 14th Annual National Agribusiness Conference, held on the sidelines of the ongoing 116th Zimbabwe Agricultural Show.
The conference is being held under the theme “Agricultural Productivity as a Catalyst for Agribusiness Growth and Food Security.”
“If we get productivity right, agribusiness growth and food security will follow,” Dr Masuka said.
He said Zimbabwe had several natural and structural advantages that provided a strong foundation for agricultural and agro-industrial development.
The country is strategically located in Southern Africa and has diverse agro-ecological regions, good soils and climatic conditions that support the production of a wide range of crops and livestock.
“Zimbabwe clearly must move and transition from being a breadbasket to becoming the agro-industrial hub, serving the region, taking advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area, but going beyond so that we can begin to create the Zimbabwe we want,” he said.
The minister said the country’s agricultural transformation should therefore extend beyond increasing primary production to developing competitive value chains capable of supplying regional and international markets with processed and value-added products.
Such a transition would create opportunities for farmers, processors, manufacturers, logistics companies, financiers and other businesses across the agricultural value chain.
