Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube

Several irrigation projects have been lined up this year as part of efforts to boost agricultural production and increase the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product as well as achieve food security and reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture.

Climate change, which has often resulted in adverse weather conditions, has been affecting the Sub- Saharan region, including Zimbabwe.

Irrigation is considered the key to offsetting further losses caused by droughts.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube acknowledged that climate change was reducing crop and livestock production. The recently launched Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy and the Agriculture Recovery Plan provide a roadmap for agriculture for the period through 2030.

The plans envisage increasing agricultural output to US$8,2 billion by 2025 and improving its contribution to GDP from the current 12 percent to 20 percent.

“Recent droughts have reinforced the importance of maximising usage of existing water bodies, soil and climate conditions towards increased agricultural productivity and output.

“Despite the huge potential of irrigation, our interventions to date have failed to leverage on this potential,” said Professor Ncube in the 2021 Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Programme.

Out of the two million hectares that can be developed from existing water bodies, only 242 000 hectares are developed and equipped with irrigation infrastructure, with 175 000 hectares being functional. But the Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development Plan seeks to increase area under irrigation and crop production from the current 242 000ha to 350 000ha by 2025.

The Government will spearhead the rehabilitation and revitalisation of 450 irrigation schemes in communal areas, including the overhaul of business models for such schemes to ensure viability and sustainability. This should help smallholder communal farmers treat agriculture as a business and get the maximum possible benefit from their produce, including achieved household food security. The plan targets rehabilitating 45 000ha on A1 and A2 farms, as well as capacitating farmers through access to financial support, equipment and markets.

New irrigation infrastructure covering 120 000 ha in marginal areas will be developed. Professor Ncube says success of these initiatives hinges on sustainable and efficient use of existing water bodies, adoption of modern irrigation systems as well as creating a conducive regulatory environment that attracts private sector participation in irrigation development and ensures farmers’ access to finance, inputs and markets.

The soon-to-be launched agriculture commodities exchange — Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) and Warehousing Receipt System (WRS) — also seeks to address some of the challenges farmers face in accessing funding for retooling and mechanisation, as well as bottlenecks in marketing their produce.

The system, experts say, will improve smallholder farmers’ access to finance, enhance transparency and information system and improve farmer livelihoods through transparent price discovery.