Govt exceeds two million jobs target
THE Government has surpassed the two million employment opportunities that were promised by President Mugabe in the run up to the 2013 elections through Command Agriculture, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.
In interview on the sidelines of a tour of African Chrome Fields in Kwekwe, VP Mnangagwa said Command Agriculture contributed immensely in employment creation in the country and would create more jobs in the downstream industry.
VP Mnangagwa said the country had created in excess of two million jobs through Command Agriculture and other various sectors of the economy, particularly the mining sector.
He said more jobs were set to be created through the recently launched Command Aquaculture and Command Livestock programmes.
“We have exceeded 2.2 million jobs,” said VP Mnangagwa. “Look at the volume of people who are engaged in Command Agriculture. We recently launched Command Agriculture and there are a lot of people who are going to be employed in that area.
“We have also introduced Command Livestock and we think we are in excess of two million jobs.”
VP Mnangagwa said the Government would first demarcate the red and green zones in cattle farming by quarantining cattle in the red zone through fencing, which would be funded by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
“Cabinet approved the programme on the 9th of May, so now the Minister of Agriculture (Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Dr Joseph Made) is rolling out the programme and people will come voluntarily to the programme,” he said.
“This one is a bit different from Command Agriculture, some fences that divide the green and the red zones in terms of cattle farming, Government will provide that.”
VP Mnangagwa said the Government would also supply farmers willing to join the programme with dip tanks and paddocks.
He said Command Livestock would include piggery, poultry, mutton, fish, cattle farming and many other forms of livestock.
“If you are a farmer and you want to venture into animal husbandry, you need paddocks, dip tanks and we will supply it,” said VP Mnangagwa. “We are maintaining an open door policy just like we did in command agriculture when we were mainly focusing on crops.
“We are giving farmers a loan facility, which they will pay in at least three years and the maximum is five years. We are also going to include dairy farmers.”
VP Mnangagwa said the country should take advantage of the increase in chrome prices and demand on the international market to produce more.
He said Zimbabwe had over 2.1 billion metric tonnes of chrome deposits, which if properly utilised, would contribute significantly towards the $3 billion mineral export target for this year.