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Sharon Shayanewako

AGRICULTURAL extension officers have so far taken delivery of 6 000 motorbikes as the Government moves to address mobility challenges that have been crippling their efforts to effectively cover farmers in need of their technical services countrywide.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr John Basera, said the motorbikes would improve extension officers’ capacity in distributing knowledge to farmers in a move, which would lead to agricultural growth.

“Our President has provided 6 000 motorbikes to be given to extension officers across the country. This will improve their capacity in distributing knowledge to our farmers leading to the growth of agricultural sector in Zimbabwe.

“Improving the work of extension officers is essential as we journey towards Vision 2030. To improve the performance agriculture sector, it is key to capacitate extension officers for effective extension service delivery. Our farmers should be educated on how best they can take farming as a business.

“If they take farming as a business, as a country we can manage to achieve our Vision 2030,” said Dr Basera.

He added that in the past, extension officers used to walk distances of more than 20 kilometers per day delivering extension services, which was a great challenge to them.

“The President managed to buy 6 000 motorbikes and as the Ministry, we also introduced refresher courses, which will help transform our agriculture,” observed Dr Basera.

He revealed that since the programme to capacitate extension officers began, the 2025 target of improving agriculture to 8, 2 billion was accomplished in 2022.

“Since we started capacitating our extension officers, agriculture has managed to rise by more than 36 percent. In 2020, it was a US$5, 4 billion agriculture economy and now it’s US$8,2 billion.

“The target of US$8, 2 billion was supposed to be achieved in 2025, but we achieved it this year, signifying the growth of our agriculture economy.”

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president (ZCFU) Dr Shadreck Makombe added that the provision of bikes to extension officers was a move in the right direction.

“The handing over of motorbikes to extension officers is a positive move. We see it as a continuation of what started some time ago. We are happy with this capacitation of officers because it will demonstrate that there is a will to reach most farmers instead of farmers going to extension offices, which might be a challenge. Officers are now coming to farmers to interact with them, teaching and enlightening them on the latest developments in terms of research, thus information will be readily available,” he explained.

Dr Makombe added that information would be disseminated to farmers even in the event of outbreaks of pests such as the armyworm.

“In short, there is going to be good exchange of ideas. Information is going to be readily available. By the end of the day, there is going to be a great improvement and agriculture will benefit,” he said.