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Herald Reporter
Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri has urged the nation to embark on a major tree planting exercise to reduce the country’s fresh fruit import bill. At a tree planting event at AFZ Headquarters in Harare yesterday, Air Marshal Shiri said the glut of fresh fruit imports from South Africa was not ideal for a country undergoing an agrarian revolution.
“We want to play our part in ensuring our country has a mini-fruit revolution. We want to set up a planting exercise that will cascade to all our bases, the surrounding communities and most importantly our farmers throughout Zimbabwe,” he said.
Such fruit tree planting exercise, the AFZ Commander said, would save Zimbabwe millions of dollars annually.
“Fruit tree farming will not only save us on forex (foreign currency) but it will also create much-needed employment for our people,” he said.
“Employment in our forestry sector currently stands at over 7 000 jobs. In essence, the commercialisation of fruit trees and non-fruit trees is in-sync with Government’s thrust for a thriving agro-forestry sector.”
Apart from fruit tree growing, Air Marshall Shiri said a wider tree planting programme would help to significantly reduce deforestation.
The AFZ said it will play its part in meeting Government’s target of planting 20 million trees by the end of 2013.
Zimbabwe loses more than 330 000 hectares of forest every year.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu