(Agence Ecofin) – The Republic of Zimbabwe seeks to achieve food security by next year. When the 2021 tobacco marketing season kicked off on April 7, Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka (pictured) revealed that in addition to stopping food imports, the government is stepping up other measures to ensure the country’s food security.
These measures include a 40% increase in value added, a 100% increase in household income and a 60% increase in total exports. About 1 million jobs are expected to be created. To achieve this objective, the government is betting on the implementation of its Transformative Strategy for the Agricultural and Food Security System (AFTSTS) launched last year. The program aims to accelerate and optimize agricultural production.
Recalling the importance of the sector to achieve the country’s development objective by 2030, Minister Masuka announced the government’s intention to rebuild the sector through the training of 18,000 farmers in agricultural entrepreneurship, d ‘by 2025, to improve harvests.
In March 2021, the government announced that the country was preparing for an expected harvest of 2.8 million tonnes of maize, more than the initial target of 1.8 million tonnes. Such results, together with favorable weather conditions and successful harvesting campaigns, should enable Zimbabwe to reduce its food imports.
Carine Sossoukpè (intern)
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