Agriculture to contribute eight billion to the economy
By Letwin Mazarura
The government is optimistic that agriculture will contribute more than eight billion US dollars within the next four years.
During the last farming season, agriculture contributed to a more than expected seven billion.
President Mnangagwa launched the Agriculture and Food System Transformation Strategy last year August which seeks to achieve the target growth by 2025.
This is a plan of action strategy drawn for agriculture recovery and livestock growth.
Dr Anxious Masuka, Minister of Lands Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement said the massive growth in agriculture was as a result of a collaboration between the private sector and the government.
“In the first year of implementation, we have grown from USD5.8 billion to USD 7.8 billion. This confirms that the target will be passed this year and agriculture will be more than USD8.2 billion industry even by 2022 ahead of the initial deadline of 2023,” said Dr Masuka.
Dr Masuka said such at an event where SeedCo was commissioning its seed maize conditioning planting.
He said the government’s effective policies paired with better planning and good rains is mostly contributing to such growth.
“This was also supported by the seed security as the government, through various seed programmes availed seeds on time,” he said.
Last cropping season of 2020 to 2021, the government distributed seed and other inputs through programmes such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa , Presidential Input Scheme and National Enhanced Crop Productivity, which is also known as Command Agriculture.
The next cropping season of 2021 to 2022 season is expected to be above normal rains as forecasted by the meteorological services in the nation.
“The upcoming summer rainfall season is predicted to be a good one therefore, seed companies such as SeedCo should continue to support various government initiatives through ensuring that seed will be available when needed”.
SeedCo has already indicated that it has enough seed amounting to 67800 tons to meet the demand.
SeedCo, which is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, recently commissioned a USD13 million seed maize conditioning plant which enhances its seed production.
Increased output in agriculture saw the sector contributing to GDP raising to at least 34%.
The country is expected to harvest up to 2.7 million tons of maize which would be the highest yield in twenty years.
Maize, groundnuts and sorghum are such crop which in collection led to the treasury to estimate its growth up to 7.8% growth.
Apart from agriculture sector, the government is also targeting the US12 billion from mining industrial sector.
The tourism sector, which by the way was affected by corona virus pandemic is expected to grow to US5 billion by 2025.
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