Zimbabwe’s minister of lands, agriculture, fisheries, water and rural development, Dr Anxious Masuka, announced that the country has surpassed its agricultural growth target for 2025 a full four years ahead of schedule. Now they are planning to grow even further in 2022.
Masuka said that, since its agricultural and food systems strategy was implemented in 2020, Zimbabwe has grown exponentially.
“We have achieved this in just one year. The agricultural industry has grown by a stellar 36.2% to US$8,19billion in 2021. We plan to grow by a further 10% in 2022,” he said in a statement.
“This record growth in agriculture is partially responsible for Zimbabwe’s record-breaking annual growth of 7,8% predicted for 2021, the highest in Africa in 2021,” the minister added.
The main aim of the strategy is to grow the country’s economy to ensure that Zimbabwe can grow its own food, and that rural families can go from being impoverished to “growing affluence”.
The strategy is built on four pillars, including:
- appropriate investment into the agricultural sector to stimulate productivity, resilience and food security;
- the dissemination of adequate agricultural knowledge, technology and innovation systems;
- coordination within the sector for responsive planning; and
- implementation, evaluation and monitoring.
The plan has also produced interventions such as the Climate-Proofed Presidential Inputs Support Programme, which has brought forth the Pfumvudza conservation agriculture programme. This programme was first introduced as a crop intensification approach for grain and oil seed production, and now also includes cotton farming.
Another component of the plan included the transformation of the country’s Agribank into a Land Bank. The Land Bank now focuses on providing technical services and comprehensive financial assistance to farmers and supporting projects. The aim is to promote the local agricultural value chain for both private farming and community agriculture.
