3 million families targeted for horticulture
Horticulture has been identified as an additional driver of rural prosperity with three million households across the country now targeted as water supplies and inputs become available as part of implementing the National Development Strategy 1 and making the Vision 2030 agenda a reality.
President Mnangagwa last year launched the Presidential rural horticulture scheme to transform horticulture through increased access to irrigation and potable water for communities in rural areas. This largely involves drilling the village boreholes, one per village, over five years with some of the water allocated to households and some for irrigating the horticulture plots. Besides this, other easy to use water resources can be added to the mix.
Zimbabwe is aiming to become an upper-middle-class economy by 2030 and the agricultural sector is expected to contribute to that goal by becoming an US$8.2 billion economy by 2023. More importantly, upgrading the rural areas will spread the new wealth across millions of families as farmers are able to earn far more from their land.
In practical terms, the horticulture scheme sees villages growing vegetables and planting orchards for household consumption to improve and vary diets and selling the surplus to improve incomes.
In an interview, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands Agriculture Fisheries Water and Rural Development Dr John Basera said experts see horticulture as a low hanging fruit in the multitude of tasks needed to achieve NDS1 and the Vision 2030 agenda.
Dr Basera said the ministry was targeting close to three million households that will be supplied with inputs.
“Under the horticulture recovery growth plan, we have two focus areas, which are conventional horticulture, that is, fresh vegetables by commercial farmers, fruits and other horticultural products for export.
“The other focus is the Presidential rural horticulture scheme where we are targeting between 2.5 million to 3 million households supporting them with vegetable seed packs, 10 fruit trees per household and going further, twinning the smallholder farmers with our anchor farmers.
“This is to make sure that they participate in export-oriented horticulture production.
We have a comparative advantage, geographic and climatic advantages which we need to take advantage of to derive export earnings advantages as well as incomes for the country, households and employment creation among others,” said Dr Basera.
The Presidential rural horticulture scheme is expected to set rural communities on the development path as the country moves towards attaining an upper-middle-income economy by the year 2030.
Farmers have applauded the Government for coming up with such schemes saying they
will add value to the agricultural sector and the economic development of the country at
large.
They said the horticultural projects will go a long way in enhancing their livelihoods as
well as upgrading their communities.
Mrs Rossie Musimurimwa said she was happy with the Government’s horticulture
scheme as it will help her to fend for her family.
“Now I can take care of my family without any worries and I am looking forward to
establishing my vegetable market so that I can generate income. I also want to keep more
seedlings as I do my project so that I can expand my vegetable business and sell
vegetables across the country,” she said.
Mrs Faina Chirenje said the scheme is most welcome as it contributes to the development
of communities.
“Now we can grow more fruits and vegetables for sale in order to sustain our families. We
would also like to have joint ventures with established farmers so that they can teach us
about the export market because we would also want to export our products,” she said.
Another rural farmer Mr Dickson Madziva said the horticultural projects were long
overdue and there was need to expand the schemes.
“I have been doing banana, paw paw, and mango farming but they are seasonal so now
with the inputs that we are set to receive from the Government, I would like to expand
my farming so that I can produce different crops and fruits every season. This will
sustain our lives and those of the nation at large as well as contribute to the expansion of
our agricultural sector,” he said.
Mr Tinotenda Tsangadzawona echoed the same sentiments and said he was happy with
the Government’s thrust of empowering rural communities through horticulture
transformation.
“We are happy with the agricultural empowerment projects that the Government is doing
in our communities, especially in horticulture. Horticultural products are very important
in our everyday lives because we need fruits and vegetables to keep ourselves healthy. We
hope the scheme will not only benefit us but the country at large,” he said.
Government’s various incentives to the horticulture sector are paying off with the sector
recording a 17 percent export growth in volumes last year compared to 2020, giving
impetus to the country’s march towards an upper-middle-class income society by 2030.-The Herald
