President Mnangagwa has commended the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development for surpassing the target of growing the sector to US$8,2 billion to US$10,3 billion this year, despite the country experiencing its worst drought in over 40 years in the 2023/2024 season.
He said this in the foreword of the ministry’s Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy 2, which runs from 2026 to 2030, along with the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2).
Zimbabwe’s transformation from a low-income to an inclusive, diverse, modern and prosperous upper middle-income economy by 2030 is underpinned by agriculture, as the economy is agro-based, added President Mnangagwa.
In August 2020, he launched the ambitious “Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy”, later named the “Agriculture, Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy”, to provide the sector’s roadmap under NDS1 for the sustainable, inclusive and climate-smart transformation of the sector from a US$5,2 billion industry to a US$8,2 billion industry by this year.
However, after several game-changing interventions, including the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, widening of the irrigation initiative and mechanising the sector, production substantially grew, resulting in the sector surpassing the target.
Said President Mnangagwa: “I commend the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development for the accelerated implementation of this Strategy, which has seen the sector grow to a US$10,3 billion industry by 2025, despite the negative impact of the worst drought in over forty years in the 2023/2024 season.”
He added that it has become necessary to craft the “Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy 2” (AFSRTS 2: 2026-2030), under NDS 2, on the country’s transformative journey towards Vision 2030.
The AFSRTS2 emphasises the resilience of the agricultural sector, based on the principles of climate-proofed agriculture, to ensure perennial food security, away from the episodic and weather-determined food security escapades of the past, said President Mnangagwa.
“This will assure the nation of food sovereignty. Concurrent with this effort, there will be improved nutrition for communities through a food systems approach to agricultural production.
“Resultantly, there will be better livelihoods for communities, and increased contribution of agriculture to economic development.
“These developments will be buttressed by a robust and secure land tenure and administration system,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said the historic Land Reform Programme is irreversible and is being entrenched to increase production and productivity through the issuance of bankable and transferable title deeds.
The AFSRTS has domesticated various regional and continental agricultural commitments, in particular, the Kampala Declaration’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and its 10-year Strategy and Action Plan adopted in January this year by the African union Council of Ministers, which is the successor to the Malabo Declaration of 2014.
President Mnangagwa said a Whole of Government approach and the philosophy, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/llizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo”, should motivate and guide the sector to accelerate implementation of the strategy for the attainment of Vision 2030.
In his acknowledgements, Agriculture Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said the AFSRTS2 is a product of wide stakeholder consultations, and input and contributions by a diverse cross-section of society, including policymakers, value chain specialists, farmers, input suppliers, financiers, Government ministries, departments and agencies, development partners and others.
He explained that the involvement of many players demonstrated the “proprietary, participatory, inclusive and Whole of Sector approach adopted since the advent of the Second Republic in 2017”.
For convenience, the AFSRTS2 is arranged around ten pillars, namely enabling policy, regulatory and coordination environment; sustainable production and productivity; research, innovation, technology and modernisation; climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience building; rural industrialisation and rural development, and investment and finance.
The other pillars are markets and trade development; enabling infrastructure development, rehabilitation and management; land and security of tenure, and building internal capacity to deliver transformation.
The AFSRTS2 has adopted “a food systems approach”, a value stream and value creation continuum, emphasising a holistic approach to development, including the associated causal, co-factor and multiplier enablers-indicating the strong and pivotal “agricultural development-industrialisation-economic development-Vision 2030 nexus”.
Permanent Secretary for Agriculture Prof Obert Jiri said the strategy plays a catalytic role in the agri-food systems transformation for the attainment of Vision 2030.
“AFSRTS2 is informed by the value chain approach, where the ministry identified value chain champions to lead the value chain analysis, whose findings were validated by stakeholders through policy dialogues, key informant interviews and validation workshops,” he said.
Prof Jiri added that the Agricultural Development Pentagon Approach embraced during consultations is fully integrated as part of the planned operationalisation of the strategy, thus acknowledging that the transformation of the agriculture sector requires cooordinated support to research, finance, marketing, education and extension.
Agricultural transformation hinges on moving from a Government-centric delivery model to a multi-stakeholder partnership
