Audit can spur agric production

EDITOR — The farm land audit which is expected to identify and flush out multiple farm owners should go an extra mile to ensure that sustainable agricultural productivity is realised.

Agriculture is a key factor in our economy as it has a potential to absorb over 70 percent of the workforce in Zimbabwe.

The land reform was meant to benefit all citizens, but some greedy and well connected bigwigs abused this process by grabbing many farms at the expense of other needy citizens.

This created inequality on the land as others are still struggling to get the smallest piece of land to provide for themselves. Large tracts of land are lying idle as they are owned by errant farmers who are not using or underutilising the land.

The ideal thing would be to rationalise the use of our land for the good of the nation. It is imperative that we reactivate our systems to promote market gardening, flower production, crop production and animal husbandry. This will certainly transform our country in a big way by creating an economy to surpass anything this country has known before.

Once there is smooth development of agriculture, which is lacking at this point in time, imports are reduced while exports are increased considerably. This helps to reduce a country’s balance of payments as well as saving foreign exchange. That money may then be used to import other essential inputs like machinery, raw materials, and to develop other infrastructure to support the country’s economic development.

The nation’s export trade depends largely on agricultural sector. Agricultural commodities such as jute, tobacco, spices, oilseeds, raw cotton, tea as well as coffee account for approximately 18 percent of the entire value of exports. This demonstrates that agricultural products are an important source of foreign exchange earning for the country.

Construction of irrigation schemes, drainage systems as well as other such activities in the agricultural sector is important as it provides larger employment opportunities.

The land audit committee should make recommendations on functional strategies which should be employed to make Zimbabwe grow. Let’s hope the latest land audit process will not be similar to previous ones which started and ended on paper.