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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union is discussing the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset) with its members in a bid to find ways farmers can actively participate in the implementation of the country’s economic blueprint.Zim Asset is meant to guide economic transformation and development in the next five years.
It is envisaged that during the period, the economy would grow by an average of 7.3 percent from 3.4 percent achieved last year.
To achieve the set objectives, the economic blueprint has identified four key priority clusters — food security and nutrition, social services and poverty reduction, infrastructure and utilities and value addition and beneficiation — to drive economic growth.
“We have started taking the Zim Asset to our members. We are looking at how we get involved as a union in supporting the Zim Asset. We are looking at aspects such as marketing of agricultural commodities and access to financing.
“On marketing issues we are saying the farmers should get involved in the value chain so that competitive prices are offered to attract our members into producing different crops so that food security is enhanced in the country,” said ZFU second vice president Berean Mukwende in an interview last week.
He said in order to promote food security and nutrition, it was imperative to ensure farmers have access to capital.
“Access to capital is critical so that we are able to move into commercial agriculture and to do this it needs access to affordable financing,” he said.
Since 2000, the country has experienced a deteriorating economic and social environment that was caused by illegal economic sanctions imposed by the Western countries.
As a result, Zimbabwe was plunged into a deep economic and social crisis characterised by a hyperinflationary environment, reduced industrial capacity utilisation of below 10 percent and an overall cumulative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline of 50 percent by 2008.
Of late, government has noted that the agricultural sector which is the backbone of the economy continues to experience challenges such as inadequate financing.
It is against this background that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa is mobilising $27 billion to fund the Zim Asset which seeks to address the challenges facing the economy.
derick.khumalo