Zimpapers Logo

Stephen Mpofu

Government’s increasing focus on rural development is an exciting paradigm shift from the colonial legacy which saw an unremitting fattening by white rulers of an already obese consumer urban setup while the sticks – a white racist mental lexemic description of Zimbabwe’s rural areas – were growing poorer and poorer.

To be sure the rural economic emancipation posits a brave new future for mother Zimbabwe and her millions of children some of whom eke out a hand to mouth existence in both the countryside and its urban geographies, Government has embarked on many development initiatives.

But, of course, detractors of the ruling Zanu-PF are wont to cry out “sour grapes” under the belief that the Government’s announced new initiatives giving rural areas a new lease of life are nothing but a campaign gimmick ahead of next year’s elections.

And, as will be expected the incumbent Government’s opponents will be echoing their foreign master’s destabilisation sentiments in hopes of de-campaigning the ruling party ahead of the polls.

Yes, if elections catalyse governments on the line by coming up with radical developmental plans, as those Zanu-PF has announced lately, then it would be a good idea for elections to be held more regularly as it is not possible for any government in power to publicly announce robust developmental programmes just for the sake of winning an election, as the rulers ought to know that they put their fate on the line through any such fake pronouncements.

In the case of Zimbabwe, everyone is surely aware that the content of the ruling party’s base political support in the country, where most Zimbabweans live is unquestionably huge.

As such, it is only logical that the millions of Zimbabweans out there in the country deserve a lion’s share of the benefits of a revolution that they supported to the hilt and which broke their yoke of enslavement.

The development programmes that the Government announced include the growing of new varieties of rice under a special funding.

This will mean a huge saving on money being spent on exporting rice, with Lowveld water bodies including Manyuchi and Tokwe-Mukosi dams as candidates for irrigated rice.

The Government will also introduce indigenous fruit trees the commercial value of which is being worked out, according to Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister, Dr Joseph Made in Bulawayo last week.

Wild fruits are renowned for their medicinal properties and herdsmen know that better than most people as they boost their health feasting on the fruits that, unfortunately are systematically being rendered extinct through rampant deforestation and uncontrolled veld fires in various parts of the country.

Which suggests that domesticating the fruit trees in point as well as preserving forests remain the only possible options for preventing a complete disappearance of fruit trees from the face of the country. This, of course, calls for harsh sanctions against wanton forest vandals.

Also recently reported by the Government in its gamut of rural face-lift measures is help to communal farmers in irrigating their crops as a move towards food security.

When in full steam, the measures will be an additional Philip to the agrarian revolution that began with the land reform programme under which land was acquired by the Government from whites who occupied much of that resource which was then redistributed to the black majority who needed it the most.

Then came the most recent instalments of the revolution, Command Agriculture, Command Livestock as well as Command Fisheries all of which are intended to boost rural development and with that the upliftement of people’s lives in the communal  lands.

Ideally, the introduction of agro industries in designated production zones should follow naturally with workers being trained to process various crops for export to earn Zimbabwe the much needed foreign currency as well as for use at home. Such industries will most likely lead to a reversed urban drift as rural people will not flock to towns for work but will now get employment in their rural setup to boost production capacities there with the urban geographies being decongested as a result.

The Government’s other plan of helping to finance tourist development zones will certainly take rural development plans a giant step foward as tourists are important agents of development in the countries that they visit.

If as initiated above that opposition parties in the country argue that development projects announced above are nothing but ruses to gunner more election votes in 2018, then let these parties publish their own forward strategies for a better Zimbabwe and prudent publics will be their judges for better or for worse.