Villagers benefit from re-engagement efforts
CHIREDZI district in Masvingo province is well-known for its vast tracts of irrigated sugarcane plantations that are owned by large corporates from where sugar is produced.
Its villagers are however, into subsistence farming and like any other communities in the countryside have been struggling to make ends meet and improve their livelihoods. And due to the dictates of natural geography, they have been growing small grain crops such as millet and sorghum that cope well in the dry region that the district is.
The communities have also been doing livestock farming but there was little improvement in terms of cattle breeds as they had no means to work on genetics. For different reasons, farm mechanisation has been so elusive and so, they have been doing their farming, harvesting and processing of grain the traditional way which is a bit labour intensive and therefore painful.
That was until President Mnangagwa’s engagement and re-engagement efforts started paying dividends with the communities recently benefitting from five grain threshers. The communities also got bulls which would ensure the improvement of livestock breeds in the district and add financial value to the rural farmers.
The donation of the equipment was made through the Indian government, the World Food Programme (WFP), Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) while the bulls were part of the Sustainable Agricultural Transformation (SAT) initiative funded by the European Union (EU).
The idea is to grow the rural economy of the communities so that it feeds into the national economic growth projections as the country strains towards an upper-middle class economy by 2030. Agriculture has therefore been identified as a sector whose turning around ensures sustainability and President Mnangagwa’s re-engagement efforts points to the need for improvement of the economic status of the rural communities through increased productivity.
The President’s re-engagement has therefore not been limited to the partnerships with different governments and departments but has also been transcending to the rural areas where success stories have been realised in line with the country’s economic blueprint- the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
According to the NDS1, access to quality, nutritious food is fundamental to human existence and necessary for human happiness. The economic blueprint notes that secure access to food can produce wide-ranging positive impacts, including economic growth and job creation.
“The agricultural sector, which is responsible for feeding the nation and providing livelihoods to 67 percent of the country’s population in rural areas is also vital for recovery and growth of the economy. Food insecurity, however, has been consistently growing in Zimbabwe. During the period 2015 to 2020, the proportion of food-insecure rural population ranged between 30 and 59 percent. Urban vulnerability was also on the rise reaching 30 percent or 2,2 million people by 2020. Further, the proportion of chronically food insecure people in rural and urban communities increased from about 500 000 in 2015 to about 1,7 million people in 2020,” notes NDS1.
Masvingo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Cde Ezra Chadzamira said the initiatives that were being taken by the Government were important in the community as the country was moving towards creating small industries in the communities in line with the devolution agenda. Chiredzi and Mwenezi communities are very ideal for small grain production and the capacitation of the communities through the donation of the five diesel powered grain threshers will improve the production of the grains both for consumption and for commercial purposes.
“We are here for a programme that came as a result of the partnership between the Government of Zimbabwe and that of Indian. We have been given threshers so that our people are able thresh their grains in a very short space of time. The
Government is looking into a system of setting up factories in Chiredzi just like what was done in Mwenezi where we now have the Marula processing factory.
“The factory was set up in Mwenezi because they have a lot of marula fruits there and so we are going to set up factories that focus on the value addition of small grains. Farmers in Chiredzi focus mainly on the small grain production because they don’t get so much rainfall,” said Minister Chadzamira.
He added that the need by the province to set up agricultural factories to unlock production was one of the government’s major objectives during the NDS1 period which would also help improve the performance of the manufacturing sector through value addition.
Member of Parliament for Chiredzi South Retired Brigadier General Calisto Gwanetsa said the provision of the bulls and the machinery would empower the communities and wean them off begging for food.
He said it was important that the communities were being given sustainable solutions to their problems that encourage them to be innovative and work hard rather than being given food.
“We want to thank our partners for the issuance of the threshers as opposed to giving our communities food. They have given us seed, they have given us the machinery so that we can sustain our lives.
“We have also witnessed the provision of bulls which will improve the livestock breeds in the district. We are assured that we are going to produce good livestock and by so doing we are enhancing our agricultural prospect,” he said.
He added that it was the President’s continued call for communities to utilise resources available in their localities to better their lives through value addition.
“This is what is enunciated by His Excellency when he places emphasis on developing an agro economy. We are following this trend and we are weaning ourselves from extending begging bowls to an empowered community capable of feeding itself and contributing positively to the national economy.
“This is also testimony that President Mnangagwa’s of engagement and re-engagement effort is paying off, otherwise the Indians were not going to be here, the UN was not going to be here but through his efforts we are here,” said Cde Gwanetsa.
The jubilant villagers thanked the Government for identifying them to benefit from its programmes saying the donation had made life more meaningful to them as their cattle would now fetch more as the breeds would have improved while they no longer have to go through the traditional labour of threshing their small grains after
harvesting.