The Sunday Mail
Business Reporter
The Government plans to use solar to power 35 000 hectares of irrigated horticulture plots across the country to drive output and grow agriculture contribution towards the economy.
Zimbabwe is pursuing broad measures across key economic sectors including agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism to transition to an upper middle-income economy in eight years’ time.
However, the Government believes mining and agriculture provide low-hanging fruits for quick economic turnaround.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka revealed this in an interview at the end of the Zimbabwe-Dubai Business Forum in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday.
“We want to establish 35 000 hectares of solar-powered one-hectare village plots to be able to power this growth as we journey towards 2030.
“So we are looking at massive investments in this area, and we invite prospective investors to partner with us so that we can grow this space and ensure sustainable production,” Minister Masuka said after the three-day forum.
“We are also looking at solar energy for agriculture development, and investments in those areas are most welcome. We are focusing on horticulture for now to be able to bring smallholder agriculture to aggregate vegetables for production and for export.”
Horticulture is Zimbabwe’s fifth-largest agricultural export earner.
The country’s registered total annual trade value of fruit and vegetable exports averages US$8 million, which had appeared to take a dip since 2016, but is now recovering.
Large-scale commercial horticultural production includes vegetables, fruits and flowers.
The produce mainly goes to export markets, local retailers and food processing companies.
Fruits produced for export include citrus (oranges, grapefruit, lemons), subtropical fruits (bananas, mangoes, passion fruit), deciduous fruits (peaches, apricots, plums) and other stone fruits, among others.
Vegetables include cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, chillies, peas and fine beans.
Certain crops have specific growing seasons and others can be grown throughout the year.
Climate change has, however, necessitated use of irrigation to ensure year-round production and deal with uncertain rainfall patterns.
A limited number of small-scale horticultural producers in Zimbabwe with access to irrigation systems and enough water supplies during the dry season produce for both the domestic and export markets.
Notably, the bulk of produce from small farmers — fruit and vegetables — is sold through the informal market, while a few are contracted to supply formal markets (retailers, agro-processors and export markets).
Being capital intensive, certain companies (both retailers and processors) offer contract farming to both small-scale and large-scale farmers.
Given the strategic importance of horticulture, Zimbabwe is seeking investment in solar-powered irrigation systems to drive local production and also counter the adverse impact of climate change.
Dr Masuka said Zimbabwe was an agriculture-based economy whose crop production is predominantly organic, which is a major selling point globally.
But, because of challenges related to climate change, Dr Masuka said the Government was exploring ways to harness water to use it more efficiently.
Zimbabwe, he added, was seeking inward investment in modern irrigation technologies; chiefly, drip- and solar-powered irrigation systems to drive production.
Addressing delegates at the business forum, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the UAE Mr Lovemore Mazemo said:
“I know for sure that there is a lot of untapped export potential for Zimbabwe here in the UAE and the Gulf region for diversified exports of agriculture, particularly food and beverages.”
He said UAE investors had strong belief in Zimbabwe’s economic potential and expressed willingness to support the country’s developmental ambitions to become a regional hub.
To drive agricultural production, Zimbabwe has developed the Agriculture Recovery Plan, a broad policy whose implementation tool is the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy (AFSTS).
The strategy spells out the roadmap of ensuring that the agriculture sector achieves over US$8,2 billion Gross Agriculture Production Value by 2023.
