By Tawanda Chenana

OCTOBER marks the beginning of the summer cropping or rather intensification of farming preparations and we, in the village, are almost done with land preparation.

I cannot help but note the excitement, especially among rural farmers. 

Gone are the days when we were at the mercy of the weather.

The Second Republic has constructed and commissioned dams, drilled boreholes and has rehabilitated and built new irrigation schemes.

Farmers are firmly in control of agricultural activities.

In rural areas, in places far from dams, boreholes have been sunk by personal as well as Government funds.

Our lives, especially of rural folk, are at the cusp of massive transformation.

Lately,  the aisles of any African supermarket are quite revealing: there is a new wave of home-brewed brands which are fast becoming household names. 

Products like Dangote rice from Nigeria, Akabanga pepper oil from Rwanda and Tomoca coffee from Ethiopia proliferate the shelves, while locally we have teas, mealie-meal brands and other food stuffs.

All these developments attest to a gradual but persistent evolution towards greater agroprocessing and value addition in the domestic agriculture sector.

Vene venyika, in agriculture, is our salvation.

Compared to other sectors such as mining, which is non-renewable, and manufacturing, agriculture presents us with the shortest possible time to eradicate poverty and catapult us to prosperity.

The largest industry in Africa today is agriculture, which attributes a large percentage of the GDP for most countries, including Zimbabwe.  

Agriculture also accounts for 15 percent of the continent’s GDP.  

The sector generates about 60 percent of jobs in Africa. 

In Zimbabwe, it is actually more than 60 percent, with the main income sources from large farms producing cereals, sugar, tobacco, tea, coffee, fruit and cotton.

And farmers in Africa, including rural subsistence farmers, will be important drivers of the new agricultural economy, producing the necessary foods and the goods that drive industries.

Consumer demand for food in Africa is growing at an unprecedented rate and Africa’s agribusiness sector is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2030 — and we must have a share of this development.

As we build our country, brick-by-brick, stone-upon-stone, we must remember that the agricultural sector can make strategic contributions to economic development.

It contributes to food security and political stability by generating a reliable food surplus from domestic food production, storage as well as imports. 

It feeds a growing rural and urban population while meeting the changing food consumption preferences, increases agricultural exports to generate new income for farmers and increases employment and foreign exchange earnings. 

It will generate Government revenue by taxing farm production, especially exports, to finance education, health and industrial development.

We are thus grateful that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is doing everything to unlock the agricultural potential, even of small-scale farmers.

We appeal for more private players to chip in and assist in developing more micro-financial services and subsidised agro-chemicals and products in order to accelerate growth of the agricultural sector.

In order to restore the country’s once robust agricultural sector, to develop and grow communal farming businesses, education on latest methods of production will be required.

Agriculture has become globally competitive and technologically advanced.

We need to introduce and develop scientific technology for the rural farming communities because its absence is presently compromising optimum productivity in crop and animal production.

Agricultural growth and transformation in the country requires co-ordinated strategic public and private investment in the sector.

An economically vibrant agricultural sector has strong multiplier effects into the rest of the economy. 

More funding towards agricultural investment, especially in the former economically marginalised areas, the rural areas, where the agricultural potential remains mostly underutilised, will see us attaining the goals of Vision 2030 much sooner.

As a nation, we need to rise to the occasion. 

Zimbabwe can feed Africa and the rest of the world.

We, in the village, are inspired and ready to deliver.

We have the land, we have the skills and, with adequate resources, can do much more.

Remember: “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/Ilizwe liyakhwa ngabanikazi.”