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Herald Correspondent 

A VISITING delegation from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and officials from Italy are engaging Government and farmers on conservation and sustainable use of all plant genetic resources to increase nutritious food crops growing in the fields. 

This includes turning to traditional crops such as millets that have been overlooked in recent decades to mitigate effects of climate change. Millets are indigenous to Africa and the exceptionally wide range of varieties can cope with a wide range of climatic conditions far better than introduced crops such as maize.

The delegation, led by FAO technical officer Mario Marino and officials from Italy, yesterday paid a courtesy call on the Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Vangelis Haritatos, where they reaffirmed their commitment to work closely with the Government of Zimbabwe in promoting biodiversity.

“Our main purpose for this mission in Zimbabwe is to acknowledge the role of the country in the context of conservation and sustainable use of all plant genetic resources,” Mr Marino said.

In SADC, Mr Marino said, Zimbabwe has been playing an active role, specifically about the conservation use of plant genetic resources and it has been one of the most important recipient of their projects.

FAO will also meet farmers to see the on-the-ground impacts of International Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund , a programme which is currently being rolled out to promote seed diversity to ensure food sufficiency.

Zimbabwe is part of a “3-country BSF project,” that helps farmers to grow drought tolerant crops and boost biodiversity in their fields. 

The project aims at increasing nutritious food crops growing in farmers’ fields, while developing their ability to harvest crops and manage the conservation of their crop seeds. 

Deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos said Government was working on the provision of processing equipment and in providing demand for the grains in urban consumer markets.

“This event is significant as we and the Government of Zimbabwe have declared traditional grains of sorghum, finger millet and pearl millet as strategic crops because of their drought tolerance that makes them fit well in our semi-arid regions of Zimbabwe. 

“Traditional grains are thus being included in the Government programme of climate proofing our agriculture, known as our Presidential Input Programme dubbed Pfumvudza or Intwasa, whereby all farmers in the marginal agro-ecological areas are getting input support to produce traditional grains.” 

The Deputy Minister said low productivity was a challenge which the Government was trying to address through the development of hybrids as well as continuously improving extension services to farmers who are being taught good agronomic practices. 

“We are pushing to surpass 500 000 hectares next season and we hope to see at least 1,5 million tonnes of traditional grains coming from those interventions. Yes it’s an optimistic figure, but regardless these are the targets we have set.”

The visiting FAO delegation will conclude with a celebration of the International Year of Millets in Masvingo on March 23, with the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Zimbabwe and the Secretary of the International Treaty.