First Lady’s Nerica rice dream comes true
. . . Marange community harvests crop
AGRIC4SHE Patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s dream for Zimbabwe to produce rice has come true.
On Friday, she concluded her weeklong tour of Manicaland province with a first-of-its-kind field visit to a New Rice for Africa (Nerica) rice demonstration centre in Marange, promoting hard work for household food security and potential exports.
Nerica rice, a disease- and drought-resistant African-Asian hybrid, was introduced with Japan’s assistance.
Dr Mnangagwa secured its production in Zimbabwe during her 2022 visit to Japan.
During the visit, she held meetings with Dr Tatsushi Tsuboi, an expert in rice production for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Mr Akutsu Kentaro, the JICA senior director in charge of cooperation with Southern African countries; Mr Amameishi Shinjiro, the deputy director-general and group director for agricultural and rural development, during which she made a request for Nerica rice production in Zimbabwe.
She invited Dr Tsuboi to Zimbabwe to lay the groundwork for large-scale rice production.
When the experts came to Zimbabwe last year, Dr Mnangagwa roped in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development to make the rice venture possible.
She envisioned empowering women, reducing rice imports and improving household nutrition.
The Marange Irrigation Scheme was chosen for the pilot project, with nationwide expansion planned.
The Marange folk produced Nerica varieties 1, 3 and 7.
Nerica 3 and 7 are long-season varieties, while Nerica 1 is the aromatic type.
They harvested the crop together with the First Lady and Dr Tsuboi, who confirmed that Zimbabwe is capable of producing Nerica rice.
As a result of the First Lady’s teachings and encouragement, the Marange women are also growing a variety of crops, including brown rice, maize, millet, rapoko, groundnuts, roundnuts, wheat, cowpeas and sugar beans.
In their orchard, they have oranges, avocados, lemons, bananas, naartjies and pawpaw, while the garden has tomatoes, okra, pumpkins, onions, rape and tsunga.
In her speech, the mother of the nation thanked the people of Marange for voting President Mnangagwa and ZANU PF back into office in the August 2023 harmonised elections.
“For us to be here getting projects such as these is out of your good work like what you did in 2023 when you voted well. I thank you for knowing where to vote. Thank you for voting President Mnangagwa and ZANU PF. It is with great pleasure today to be among farmers in Marange, in particular the farmers who have welcomed the initiative to try out Nerica rice production on their farms,” she said.
Agriculture, Dr Mnangagwa emphasised, is an important engine for economic growth and a driver of poverty reduction in rural areas.
“This sector contributes approximately 17 percent to Zimbabwe’s GDP (gross domestic product). In addition, agriculture provides employment and income for 60 to 70 percent of the population. It supplies 60 percent of the raw materials required by industry and contributes 40 percent of total export earnings.
“The consumption of rice in Zimbabwe has increased over the years, with this commodity steadily becoming a staple meal component, which diners
prefer over other alternative foods, particularly among the youths. We hear that the rice uptake has increased, but when looking at the population, it is being noticed that the youngsters are the ones who are mostly consuming rice. I then said take rice and dried vegetables and I do not backtrack in terms of our traditional grains that were consumed by
our forefathers. It is nutritious. “Rice is commonly served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. As such, rice is among the top imported commodities in Zimbabwe. Over 80 percent of the rice sold and consumed in this country is foreign sourced, spending over US$100 million. Sadly, annual rice production is 2 900 tonnes against a national demand of 300 000 tonnes.
‘‘The challenges in rice production include unavailability of rice seed varieties on the local market, not excluding high yielding and aromatic rice varieties which consumers prefer and the skills values across the value chain. I want to encourage women and children to the field because this is an easy crop to grow and one which ripens early.
“New Rice for Africa, which is an upland rice, holds great potential to contribute towards food security, hunger reduction and poverty alleviation and also to reduce foreign currency expenditure through import substitution,” she said.
“In addition, the inclusion of women and youths in Nerica rice production is a crucial step in achieving food security and income for all, in line with sustainable development goals. I am, therefore, excited to promote Nerica rice production to boost food security and build climate resilience among women farmers in Zimbabwe, who can benefit from diversifying their cropping programmes,” she added.
The First Lady said in 2022, she went to Japan, where she learnt that some African countries embarked on Nerica rice production and asked Dr Tsuboi to visit Zimbabwe as part of a follow-up to the discussions.
Dr Tsuboi is a renowned Nerica rice expert with over 30 years’ experience.
The First Lady exhorted women and youths to embark on rice production as it through our Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, empowers families and sustains livelihoods. Fisheries and Rural Development. “Thank you JICA for working with Zimbabwe My people, food has come. We did not do well because of a poor season, so to improve our welfare, we saw it necessary to grow rice. We are known for hard work and we are learned and we do not sit down,” she said.
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