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Kiyapili Sibanda, Business Reporter
YEAR 2017 is expected to provide growth to business and boost the economy on the back of an anticipated bumper harvest, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) has said.

Economic experts say improved agricultural output would impact positively on other productive sectors of the economy and create room for investment in capital spending.

“Trends in Zimbabwe’s economic growth in particular have been linked to rainfall  variables.

“Economic growth potential and rainfall variability provide additional security for food and good water supplies.

“As ZNCC we are confident that with good rainfall, several factors which include the prevalence of rain-fed agriculture in the region, input-output linkages between agriculture and other economic sectors, we should expect economic growth,” said the business body.

“Agriculture is linked to the other sectors of the economy. Good rainfall will have a positive impact on farming activities and the rest of the economy through inter-sectoral relations with good agricultural supply chain and also necessitate reduced consumption prices.”

The Meteorological Services Department has predicted normal to above normal rainfall in the current agriculture season while farming activities including the Command Agriculture Scheme, are already in full swing across the country. The Government has also provided input support to communal farmers through the Presidential Input Scheme.

Given the agricultural sector’s inter-linkage with the other sectors of the economy, as per the input-output matrix, ZNCC says good rains would positively impact on non-agricultural sectors that depend on the intensity of the inter-relations that they have with the agricultural sector.

It said a good harvest will also affect key services along agri-food chains, such as transportation. “Value-added livestock also increases due to the widespread practice of extensive livestock rearing (free-range), whose performance is closely related to the quantity and quality of rain-fed pastures,” it said.

“Low agricultural productivity is greatly linked to high poverty rate. We expect a percentage increase in investment and higher agricultural yields. Good rains will also ensure adequate supplies for water based industries thereby improving output.”

The ZNCC urged farmers to work harder and challenged industries to acquire good equipment. It said agro-processing companies need to be capacitated to be able to absorb farm output for processing to finished goods.

“The agro-processing companies being fully capacitated can then absorb for export markets. Through this process, we can then expect economic growth,” said ZNCC.

Zimbabwe is an agriculture-based economy and the sector contributes a large share to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

ZNCC president Mr Davison Norupiri recently said his organisation embraces Government policies such as the Command Agriculture scheme, Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 and creation of export processing zones.

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