“I can see the light”, Mthuli Ncube tells Zimbabwe Senate

I must say something about agriculture.  It is a very important sector.  If you look at the winter crop, what we are hearing, what we are being informed by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement is that the yields are not too bad.  We should have a decent winter wheat crop.  The yields are not too bad at all and the output, at least the yields will be slightly better than the last seasons, so that is encouraging, but I must say looking back at the grain production, we had an increase from last season in terms of grain output.  The increase was more notable in the traditional grain sector more than just the maize and the usual sorghum, millet and so forth.  That is where the increase was notable.  Well over 300% increase in output.

I think if we go to places like Muzarabani, this is visible and we really want to encourage our citizens, especially those in the dry areas to plant more traditional grains as a climate mitigation measure in order to feed themselves.  I must say that the Government, through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, has an agriculture recovery plan that we are working on and that would drive our summer programme.  For example, for the Presidential Input Scheme, Madam President, we are emphasising this Pfumvudza system which is meant to improve productivity.  One sixteenth of a hectare being the target for a family of say five and their carefully planted maize crop – the number of lines counted properly, number of crops counted properly and it is more than enough for a family of five or so to water the field in the absence of rain water.  So that is productivity we are focusing on.

Then on the summer command programme again, our partnership with the banks carries on and again, we are targeting 5 000 farms or so who are very productive, who have a track record and typically have access to water.  So if they have access to irrigation, that is preferred naturally, but we will not exclude those without that if they have other ways of keeping their crops wet and well irrigated.  Again the emphasis is on productivity and climate proofing our agriculture.  What we have added this year, Madam President, is the mechanisation side.  We have acquired tractors, combine harvesters and other equipment which is administered again through the banks because we want to make sure that everyone honours whatever obligations they have in terms of leasing this equipment and we have requested Agribank to establish a listing division to manage this equipment so that it is well looked after and as I say that obligations are met by the borrowers or the lessor of his equipment.  So that is our strategy for agriculture.  We are determined that again after four seasons, we should not be importing food again.  Let us banish food imports forever.

Madam President, there is a sector that is also important and it is all part of the real economy, it is just energy output.  Again, we have seen an improvement in energy output.  The water levels in Kariba have been coming up, the catchment areas have seen more water being deposited through the water levels and the Zambezi and then Kariba have gone up and that is encouraging.  It means that our hydropower output is set to go up.  This is pleasing indeed.

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