Zimpapers Logo

Ivan Zhakata-Herald Correspondent

So far 2 000 joint farming ventures covering up to 200 000 hectares have been approved by Government to boost agriculture.

Speaking at the first meeting of the Joint Venture and Investment Trust hosted by the Federation of Young Farmers Clubs in Zimbabwe Trust in Harare, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Lands Agriculture Fisheries Water and Rural Development Dr John Basera said joint ventures could launch more investors into the agriculture space using joint ventures.

All joint ventures in the agricultural sector have to be regularised, registered and to be approved by the Ministry.

“Our interest as Government is we are the owners of the land. We need to protect investment, the land holder and the investor so that we build confidence across the partnership,” he said.

“At the moment we do have about 2 000 joint ventures approved by the Ministry and in terms of hectares it amounted to about 150 000 to 200 000 hectares under joint ventures. We think it is a working model so that we now start to see optimised use of land and resources more importantly.

“We will start to see investments flowing into the agriculture space, investments in the form of working capital, retooling and uptooling in the agricultural space, mechanisation in the form of modernisation and irrigation development among others.”

Dr Basera said Zimbabwe has the potential to irrigate over 2 million hectares but needed resources in order to harness that potential to a meaningful advantage.

“Coming to investments, especially infrastructural investments as related to climate proofing in agriculture which is so vulnerable to climate change effects, this is so critical because we know that climate change is a reality and we need to adapt as a sector and we die.

“That is the reason we are promoting joint ventures especially in relation to irrigation rehabilitation and development so that we can harness all the water bodies in the country,” he said.