VP Mnangagwa
Tendai Mugabe in GWERU—
Government is going to put 300 000 hectares of land under irrigation to ensure food self-sufficiency even during drought periods, while it has adopted the Command Livestock concept at Cabinet level, Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said. This, he said, was part of broadening the scope of the Command Agriculture scheme. Further, the specialised programme is now going to take on board Command Fishing, with an initial pilot project set to be launched by President Mugabe at Tokwe Mukosi Dam on May 19.
Research by institutions of higher learning is now on top of Government’s priority list under the Command Agriculture initiative, which has registered a huge success in its first year of implementation.
Acting President Mnangagwa was speaking while delivering a highly subscribed public lecture at the Midlands State University here yesterday.
In his elaborate and well-articulated presentation, Acting President Mnangagwa enunciated several life changing programmes that Government was pursuing to revitalise the economy.
“As I speak right now, shipment of centre pivots from Spain has begun,” he said. “On a related note, the Agricultural, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Authority has been set up to ensure a rapid revitalisation of irrigation infrastructure development.
“I have mentioned that to have two million metric tonnes of maize per year, we need to plant 400 000 hectares of land, but this year we have planted 1,2 million hectares of maize, but 400 000 only would give us two million metric tonnes at the level of five tonnes per hectare.
“This country is sometimes visited by droughts. In a drought year we will not be able to have the yields we are talking about. To resolve that and to be permanently in food sufficiency situation, we need to have 300 000 hectares of land under irrigation. Currently, we have 159 000 hectares of land under irrigation, so we are going to increase land under irrigation to 300 000 hectares so that whether there is rain or no rain, whether Mwari atsamwa kana afara, atipa mvura kana atinyima, tinongoguta.’’
Acting President Mnangagwa said Government had embarked on a massive de-siltation programme to enhance the water holding capacity of dams and weirs, particularly in rural areas.
He said another new kid under the Command Agriculture basket was the Command Livestock that was adopted by Cabinet on Monday.
Acting President Mnangagwa said this initiative was likely to earn the country the much needed foreign currency as there was a ready market for livestock products in many countries.
“Command Livestock — mombe, mbudzi, huku, shiri, zvihuta,” he said. “Cabinet recently authorised that we proceed with Command Livestock.
“Actually, we passed the programme last Monday targeting beef, dairy and poultry and the production of associated equipment. The timing of these events is such that the livestock sector will benefit from the high grain production this year through feed stock.
“This will trigger economic activity as agro processing companies, transporters, marketers, retail and related services will be distributing stock feeds to farmers, creating employment and unlocking the maize value chain.”
Acting President Mnangagwa said the fish programme to be launched by President Mugabe was another life changing project that would bolster the country’s food situation and would cascaded to ward level.
“On the 19th of this month we are going to launch another programme — the fish programme at the Tokwe Mukosi Dam,” he said.
“The President is going to launch it. We are going to put about 1,6 million fingerlings in Tokwe Mukosi as a pilot project. Each province is going to have a pilot project scheme for fisheries.
“The next phase we will give each district a pilot project, then the next level we will give every ward, as long as there is a water body, we will do that.”
With regards to winter wheat, Acting President Mnangagwa said Government had already secured funding for 65 000 hectares of land, with intentions to export.
“We use about 350 000 tonnes of wheat to about 400 000 tonnes for our bread a year, but we don’t produce enough wheat in this country, we import,” he said.
“We have now started a programme which in three seasons we should be able to produce enough wheat in Zimbabwe for our own consumption and thereafter we plan for exports.”
On research, Acting President Mnangagwa challenged university students to study the technology being used abroad to produce local products.
The public lecture, which was themed: “Command Agriculture in Zimbabwe: Myths, Lessons and Future”, was also attended by Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Minister of State for Midlands Cde Jason Machaya, Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office Clifford Sibanda, Deputy Minister of Energy and Energy Development Cde Tsitsi Muzenda, MSU acting Vice Chancellor Professor Victor Muzvidziwa, students and the Midlands business community.