‘Use technology to boost food security’

ALL provinces and districts will soon be required to grow crops using available technologies to ensure food security and improved living standards, a massive departure from previous years when some provinces were deemed unfit for cropping, President Mnangagwa has said.

He said this in an interview with journalists over the weekend after commissioning the Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme acceleration model in Lupane.

Matabeleland North Province was previously unknown for cropping as it is one of the warmest regions in Zimbabwe with an average daily temperature of 31 degrees Celsius.

Coal mining and animal husbandry are common activities in Matabeleland North.

But President Mnangagwa said all that has changed, with the advent of the Second Republic he leads, which wants all provinces to use various technologies to grow crops.

“All that is needed is to use technology which is now available and there is no region in Zimbabwe which cannot grow a crop. All we need is to apply correct technology to every particular region of this country,” he said.

“Where we are here, it was nothing except a bush, but we decided to grow crops here and so that it becomes a crop area. We began with maize, wheat and barley and it went very well.

“Now we know that it is very possible and we are going to expand it so that this province, Mat North, can contribute to food production. Mat North was not known for any national contribution to food security because people believed that regions 4 and 5 were not suitable for cropping, it’s a lie, it can be achieved and you can see it.”

President Mnangagwa said as the Government develops cropping areas, rural areas will be the biggest beneficiaries as they get improved infrastructure and revenue streams that will uplift them from poverty.

“Again, we are developing the rural areas.

“If you come back after two to three seasons, the families working here would have been shifted from poverty to a level where they are above poverty, just as a result of planning, as a result of a vision and we are going to have this in every province, possibly every district, as we move on,” he said.

In Masvingo Province, the President launched the Chombwe Irrigation Scheme in December last year which is benefiting 26 families.

All the 26 families now have piped water drawn from the nearby Chombwe Piped Water Scheme, a development that has improved access to clean water in the Chivi District which is traditionally dry.

Again, the families taking part in the Chombwe Irrigation Scheme, had a bumper harvest of maize and sunflowers and they were hoping to get up to 15 tonnes of maize, which would be sold to the Grain Marketing Board and they get some money for their children’s fees and general upkeep.

If such as scheme was to be replicated across the country as hinted by President Mnangagwa, whose Government plans to transform agriculture into an US$8,2 billion industry by 2025, then more families will have improved living standards.

Through the five-year national blueprint, the National Development Strategy 1, Government wants to stimulate agricultural production to ensure 80 percent of industry’s raw material needs are met from local inputs.