Sundaymail Editor
Online Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S first satellite, ZimSat-1, will be used to feed information to the high-tech digital application that measures production on farms, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Dr John Basera has said.
This comes as Government moves towards full adoption of modern technology in undertaking the annual national crop and livestock assessment.
For the first time, production is being evaluated electronically using the new system — Agricultural Production Form (APF) — which will be supported by ZimSat-1.
The system captures an individual farm’s actual productivity in real-time and feeds data collated from districts into a national mainframe in Harare.
Addressing a press briefing on Monday, Dr Basera said the first-round annual national crop and livestock assessment of the current 2022-2023 season is expected to start on January 20.
“In line with modernising and digitalising thrust, modern technologies such as the Geographical Information Systems (GIS), open data kit and remote sensing from the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA) tapping from the recently launched ZimSat-1 will be used.
“The Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (Sirdc) and other partners in pursuant to the Whole-of-Government approach will also be used and tapped into,” said Dr Basera.
The Agricultural Advisory and Rural Development Services (AARDS) officers, formerly Agritex officers, would be the principal enumerators who will collect data randomly from sampled farmers in every ward of the 1 600 rural wards.
He added: “We urge farmers and stakeholders to cooperate with them while collecting as this is an important exercise, information from which will be used for early warning systems, policy programming, improvement of the national herd, planning for food security and measuring performance of the overall sector and contribution to the overall economy.”
Zimbabwe is projected to achieve food self-sufficiency this year, especially after two successive seasons of drought, on account of Government’s increased targeted investments, competent farming practices and abundant rainfall.
Online Reporter