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President Mugabe gets a briefing from Minister of Information, Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Supa Mandiwanzira at the 16th zanu-pf Annual National People’s Conference in Masvingo

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
The Zanu-PF Government remains committed to boosting agriculture as the mainstay of the country’s economic development given its pivotal place in the success of Zim-Asset’s Food Security and Nutrition Cluster, the revolutionary party’s Economic Affairs Department has said.

According to the Central Committee report presented to the 16th Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conference by President Mugabe in Masvingo at the weekend, the department said there had been steady progress in the implementation of programmes aimed at boosting agriculture.

The party said a successful agricultural sector created linkages with other areas of the economy.

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The party said it was however, disturbed by low land utilisation by new farmers under A1 and A2 schemes.

“Government has initiated the following measures in order to raise agriculture productivity including; Brazilian More Food for Africa Programme, Command Agriculture, ARDA Graduation programme, input support scheme to the vulnerable households, cotton input scheme, promoting anchor farmers and finalising issuance of 99-year leases and A1 permits,” reads the Central Central Committee report.

“The economic environment remained challenging due to the negative effects of drought. However, good rains in the second half of the season helped late planted and replanted maize crop. Projected real economic growth rate for 2016 is 0,6 percent. A growth rate of between 2 percent and 3 percent is expected in 2017 due to the anticipated better rains and recovery of some commodity prices.”

According to the Government’s economic blueprint Zim-Asset, the Food Security and Nutrition Cluster aims to create a self-sufficient and food surplus economy for Zimbabwe to emerge as the “breadbasket of Southern Africa”.

Ultimately, it seeks to build a prosperous, diverse and competitive food security and nutrition sector that contributes significantly to national development through the provision of an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation.

The report reiterates that the Command Agriculture programme is targeting a minimum maize production of two million metric tonnes from 400 000 hectares with the support of $85 million for irrigable land, $75 million dry land and $30 million for the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme.

The Economic Affairs Department said Government was also collaborating with development partners to rehabilitate existing irrigation schemes to mitigate the effects of climate change. It said irrigation had become critical given the uncertain rainfall patterns due to climate change.

The report indicates plans to recalibrate farms and issuing of leases for the resettled farmers.

“Re-mapping of the farms will facilitate the issuance of the 99-year leases and A1 permits that is currently underway. This will ensure security of tenure. Further, the exercise will enable Government to pay compensation for improvements on acquired agricultural land in line with the provisions of Section 295 of the country’s Constitution,” reads the report.

The department said activities in the manufacturing sector were being hampered by low competitiveness, unsustainable cost structures, the impact of cheap imports and generally low spending power among Zimbabweans.

It also said economic reforms were crucial for the realisation of the country’s development goals.

“A switch from consumption-led to investment-led and export-led growth as well as addressing the current challenges facing the country such as external debt, domestic debt, consumption-savings imbalance, infrastructure deficit and Government budget deficit are key to sustainable economic recovery,” recommended the department.

It said there was also need to promote policy clarity, consistency and credibility.