Farmers urged to employ advanced technology
STAKEHOLDERS in the agricultural sector have urged government and private players to employ vigorous mechanisms including advanced technology use to enable local farmers to produce enough for the country’s needs and avoid being a net importer of food, especially cereals.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Since the launch of the land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe has fallen from being a food basket of the region to a net food importer from countries such as South Africa, Zambia and Malawi, a development that has further squeezed Treasury’s thin purse.
In an interview with NewsDay on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe Food Conference and Expo in Harare yesterday, Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (Arda) board chairman Bazel Nyabadza said there was need to revive the agricultural sector by consulting widely and making everyone participate in changing the fortunes of the sector.
“If we were to mitigate against food shortages we need to realise that climate change is real and technology is the best way to counter those likely shortages,” Nyabadza said.
“We in Zimbabwe are now realising that the policy of private-public partnership is the way forward.
“It enables us to access funding at competitive positions, equally we buy in technology and we utilise on our main power base, that is black Zimbabweans and white Zimbabweans coming together. That is the partnership we need so that we retain a vigorous approach in this region.”
Agriculture deputy minister (livestock) Paddy Zhanda said training of new farmers was a critical component of the turn-around strategy.
“The coming together of various stakeholders must be encouraged, it must happen as often as possible so that at the end of the day we all travel the same road and understand where we are going as a country.
“We need education and training for us to improve our production especially with our new farmers. We must also move away from household food security to commercialisation at every aspect where agriculture is taking place,” Zhanda said.
Deputy director of the Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe Marc Carrie-Wilson called on government to ensure water and electricity charges were affordable.
Farmer Irene Maphenduka accused the government of not doing enough to support cattle ranchers in the Matabeleland region.
“Livestock rearing is our core business, but we never got any assistance since Independence. We need seed, friendly policies and transport assistance among others, but that has not been coming,” she said.
Maphenduka pleaded with the Ministry of Agriculture to compensate farmers for livestock devoured by wild animals.
In response, Zhanda urged farmers especially in Chipinge and Masvingo to stay away from conservancies and game parks to minimise losses and human-animal conflicts.