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Walter Nyamukondiwa in BEIJING, China
Zimbabwe’s rural development policy has taken centre stage at the Forum for China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation held in Sanya, Hainan Province of China, as a model that can spur rural industrialisation and alleviate poverty.
The policy, which is in the process of implementation, will see 35 000 solar-powered boreholes being set up to irrigate a hectare of land in each village and the establishment of fish ponds to improve nutrition and income along with their primary purpose of household water supply.
Increased cooperation with China is expected to positively impact rural development and spur industrialisation, drawing from home-grown interventions and aspects of China’s development which has lifted more than 900 million people out of poverty.
Speaking at the forum, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira said the rural development thrust had caught the attention of the forum.
Officials from at least 40 African countries and China attended the forum to find ways of accelerating rural development.
“In our interaction with China, we found that there was need to deepen cooperation in technology transfer, research and innovation, which China is far ahead in establishing,” said Deputy Minister Marapira.
“We are already cooperating with exchange programmes for technocrats from both countries. Our presentation on the rural development policy, which we now call Rural Development 8.0, was not only received in China, but even in Italy where we presented recently.”
“Of major interest is how Zimbabwe has come up with programmes to address hunger and poverty in rural areas despite Western imposed sanctions. Everyone is asking about the interventions, which could be implemented in the whole world. They want our template of how we are dealing with rural development.”
Coupled with the Presidential Inputs Scheme targeting livestock, cotton, fruit trees and grain and oilseed production for at least three million households and establishment of agricultural value chains, the interventions are expected to boost family incomes and boost community development.
Already, the country has reached food sufficiency in wheat and other grains, with wheat surpassing last year’s record output of 375 000 tonnes, to over 465 000 tonnes.
The tour of Chinese villages, he said, had been an eye opener as rural villages have also embraced tourism through the setting up of village hotels.
“We interacted with China after visiting their villages and one thing I have realised is that they have developed villages into hotels where they picked strategic areas and they now have village hotels,” he said.
This has spurred a tourism boom for people from urban areas coming to learn agriculture and to relax in the village.
Deputy Minister Marapira said this could be replicated at farms and even villages in Zimbabwe to improve circulation of money in rural areas and improve livelihoods.
Some villagers have established campsites on their land.
Deputy Minister Marapira also noted the adoption of smart agricultural techniques including setting up of greenhouses to ensure year-round crop production.
“They have marketed it worldwide and tourists are coming for it,” he said. “Zimbabwe would emulate China in mechanising rural areas for increased production.
“The programmes we have adopted will lead to rural industrialisation through cold-chains and pack shades in growth points. All of this will lead to rural industrialisation, leading to rural development and food nutrition in rural areas.”
So far, a borehole has been drilled in each of the 100 villages of Zaka East Constituency alone, under the Presidential Borehole Drilling Programme.
The programme also targets all the 9 600 schools following the same model for practical learning of agriculture at school. Over 100 rigs are now active in the drilling.
The exchange programme seeks to evaluate what Africa was doing to alleviate poverty and rural development.
Online Reporter