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Deputy Minister Marapira

Business Reporter
Zimbabwe is working on boosting its irrigation capacity by completing dams that are at advanced stages of construction in the short to medium term. The project to complete the dams is aimed at bringing water, mostly, to communal areas and will cushion farmers against the effects of recurring droughts. The project is being spearheaded by Finance Ministry and the department of Irrigation (in the Ministry of Agriculture).

It is a short to medium term programme expected to take between five and 10 years. Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development (Cropping Production) Davis Marapira said in an interview that irrigation development was critical to ensure food self-sufficiency, job creation as well as cutting food imports.

“We have irrigation schemes that have fallen into decay — we are targeting all water bodies and we have various programmes that we are implementing to revive irrigation. Agriculture is the backbone of this economy; it has the potential to generate 70 percent of foreign currency exchange and we have to support the industry,” he said.

As climate change brings more erratic rains, the sub-Saharan Africa has seen an increase in irrigation among small-scale farmers. According to some media reports, citing the International Food Policy Research Institute, it is estimated that more than one million hectares of small farms are now irrigated in the Sub Saharan Africa.

Government has already issued a three year Irrigation Infrastructure Treasury Bond amounting to $50 million to acquire irrigation equipment for its specialised agriculture scheme. Participating banks are Agribank, CBZ and ZB, according to a term sheet of the bond. The Government has set the coupon rate for the bond at six percent.

It will have prescribed asset status, liquid asset status, tradability and tax exempt status. The government said the bond was targeted at pension funds, insurance companies, banks and any other interested parties. Zimbabwe has only 206 000 hectares of agricultural land under irrigation and has plans to put 2,5 million ha under irrigation.

Some analysts say the devastating effects of climate change require priority be given to enhancing climate resilience and mitigation programmes in vulnerable areas. This includes scaling up irrigation development, construction of water reservoirs, and adaptation of low carbon and climate resilient development pathways, breeding drought tolerant crop varieties and strengthening early warning systems, among others.