The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has said the country is on course to achieving a US$8,2 billion Agriculture economy by 2025, calling on all players in the agriculture sector to play their part in this endeavor.
Speaking at the Eighth Annual National Agi-business conference where he launched the Agriculture and Food Systems Strategy in Harare on Wednesday, the President said this was in line with various agriculture strategies that were embarked on by the late National Hero and former Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Cde Perrance Shiri.
Among the facilities that were worked on by Cde Shiri before his passing on last month are the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation strategy, the Agriculture Recovery Plan and the Livestock Growth Plan.
President Mnangagwa called on all agriculture players to fully undertake farming activities with vigour to ensure that the 2020/2021 cropping season is a success.
“My administration is indeed committed to end hunger and poverty in line with aspirations of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the 2014 African Union Malabo declaration.
“Having realized the gap in our agriculture sector, government has transformed the business architecture of Agribank, turning it into a Lands bank for all farmers. The bank will provide comprehensive financial and other technical services to farmers,” he said.
Turing to the launch of the strategy, the President said this was meant to fulfill the Government’s domestication of the rights to food and nutrition by society.
“This action-oriented strategy provides the inherent and God given natural resources of land and water as well as our hard working human capital.
“In this regard we have set out result-oriented interventions for implementation by farmers. These include the rebranded Climate-proofed Presidential Input support programme which has seen the introduction of the Pfumvudza conservation program,” said President Mnangagwa.
The President further revealed that farmers had already started accessing the Presidential inputs for the 2020/2021 farming season.
