Mnangagwa says Africa’s development must never be limited by those who ruined the planet

Today we are ready to shrug off this mischaracterisation, and to defy ruinous Western sanctions, thanks foremost to our hardworking people, and to the far-sighted post-Land Reform policies and programmes we have pursued under the Second Republic. As the Second Republic, we took a deliberate decision to end hunger and national food insecurity. This, we said we would achieve through the twin strategy of mechanising and modernising our Agriculture sector; and through climate-proofing our Agriculture by building more water bodies, followed through by modern irrigation systems.

In Kigali, the focus was on Three Fs and Three Cs, themselves a summation of the food crisis afflicting the greater part of mankind, principally in Africa. The three Fs are: Food, Fuel and Fertilisers; the three Cs are Climate, Covid and Conflict. While many delegations bemoaned these afflictions, we in Zimbabwe had lessons to proffer, in place of sob tales.

On the day of my departure for Rwanda, I had just commissioned a fertiliser blending factory, thus moving a major step towards eliminating the first F.

One of our leading companies, Zimplats, had also announced plans to manufacture sulphuric acid we need in the fertiliser industry. With these projects and a few more we have up our sleeve, Zimbabwe is well on the road to meeting all her fertiliser needs, even having some surplus to share with countries on our continent.

Our food reserves are sound, regardless of the mid-season drought that hit us in the 2021/22 Agricultural Season. Our Strategic Grain Reserve Policy makes us ride through lean years. As, too, does our intensified investments in water and irrigation systems under the Accelerated Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development Programme. So far, 175 000 hectares are now irrigable under this rehabilitation programme, bringing the national total to 185 000 hectares. Our target is 350 000 hectares under irrigation, thus totally climate-proofing our Agriculture for all-season national food security.

In spite of the current broken international energy supply situation, we have been able to keep our Economy, including Agriculture, adequately fuelled. In fact, fuel prices have been coming down steadily, thus assuring us of durable economic growth, the global turbulence notwithstanding. We thus have taken care of the Three Fs which nag most economies on our continent and beyond.

I have already outlined how our water and irrigation programmes are gradually climate-proofing our Agricultural sector. We will not rest until we achieve our target of 350 000 hectares under irrigation, and until we have enough water bodies to underpin our Agriculture, province by province. In Zimbabwe, we reject as unscientific the view that some provinces, districts or communities are non-agricultural.

What we have had, which we must now overcome, are inadequate and/or inappropriate investments in certain needful areas.

Who would have ever imagined that wheat would grow and thrive on the Kalahari Sands of Bubi-Lupane, giving our nation handsome harvests? Or in Bikita traditionally known for rain deficits? With Tugwi-Mukosi now meeting water requirements for Chiredzi, we now plan to re-purpose waters of Lake Mutirikwi and Manjirenji Dam to create a greenbelt all the way to Birchenough. Our policy of leaving no one and no community behind will change fortunes for communities and for our Nation.

In Egypt, which hosts COP27 in a month’s time, we of Africa will pursue, project and defend our interests. We are not responsible for the climate crisis which now bedevil our planet, even though consequences of that planetary crisis have not spared us. For that reason, our development options should never be limited by those who ruined our planet, and thus should rightly bear the full costs of repairing it.

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