EU capacitates Zimbabwe farmers
By Own Correspondent
By Kenneth Matimaire
MUTARE — The Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) has launched an agricultural support scheme bankrolled by the European Union (EU) to enhance smallholder farmers’ understanding of policy issues.
The scheme seeks to benefit over 20 000 smallholder farmers in three selected provinces.
It also seeks to encourage farmers’ participation in policy related issues and increased dialogue on food and nutrition security development.
The EU funded programme will be implemented in 10 selected districts in the country’s three provinces, namely Mutasa, Nyanga and Buhera in Manicaland; Masvingo, Chivi and Mwenezi in Masvingo; and Kwekwe, Gokwe South and Shurugwi in the Midlands.
ZFU chief economist, Prince Kuipa, said selected districts would be tasked with implementation of the programme in 10 wards.
Kuipa said the initiative would strengthen farmers’ understanding of complex policy issues in order to enable them to hold authorities accountable.
“This is a project looking at involving people on the ground, the farmers, to contribute to national policies. Normally, the Ministry of Agriculture comes to ZFU to get the position of farmers but it is the people on the ground who know better. So it will enable the people on the ground to interface with policymakers to be aware of polices, to also discuss with the implementers of development and social programme, which includes all the government ministries in the province and district.
“Most importantly, farmers will be able to raise accountability issues against authorities. If they are supposed to put a road, the farmers are supposed to know the timeframe and budgets to be able to hold them to account. This goes to any farming related activity,” he said.
Kuipa said the programme would resolve the longstanding challenge of policies being crafted at the highest level without the input of the grassroots.
He said responsive policies should emanate from the grassroots, the primary beneficiaries.
The programme was launched following several researches highlighting the need for inclusive policy implementation in the agricultural sector.
The EU financed the programme under the country’s mid-term policy plans and economic development blueprints such as the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.
Kuipa indicated that they were running a baseline survey to measure the effectiveness of the project.
“Currently we are running a baseline survey to see the effectiveness of the project by checking the level of awareness before and after it was launched to see if farmers are benefitting from it,” he said.