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USING the Land Apportionment Act (1930), black Zimbabweans were forcibly moved from fertile lands to largely uninhabitable areas by a brutal colonial regime that intended to leave locals in extreme poverty.

A handful of white farmers became millionaires at the expense of locals who were unable to access loans from banks using their land as surety. The “commercial” white farmers had title deeds making it easy for them to access loans from banks and the private sector.

This cycle of poverty was to continue for over a hundred years until the country finally embarked on a land redistribution programme that upgraded black farmers into commercial farmers.

The Agricultural Rural Development Authority (Arda)

However, in the still “uninhabitable” rural areas, the majority of Zimbabwean farmers were still subjected to colonially engineered poverty. That is until the advent of the Second Republic in November 2017.

President Mnangagwa’s Government has made rural development and industrialisation a top priority, and the fruits are bare enough for all to see and harvest.

In 2021, President Mnangagwa launched the Arda Vision 2030 Accelerator Model programme at Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme in Matabeleland North Province, and in December of the same year, he launched the Presidential Rural Development Programme at Sekusile-Makorokoro Nutrition Garden in Jinjika Village, Mangwe District in Matabeleland South Province.

The Presidential Rural Development Programme is expected to help unlock opportunities for rural communities in terms of access to clean and safe water, food security, poverty alleviation and employment creation.

President Mnangagwa

Under the Arda Vision 2030 Accelerator Model, Government is stimulating the industrialisation of rural communities through engendering value addition and beneficiation.

Since the launch of the two programmes in 2021, a lot of ground has been covered and yesterday we carried stories relating to each of the programmes which are already transforming lives in rural areas.

At one irrigation scheme, which is the largest in Matabeleland South Province, located in Ward 3 under Chief Sibasa in Insiza District, 746 small-scale farmers will benefit directly from the Arda Vision 2030 Accelerator Model. The US$400 000 rehabilitation of the Silalabuhwa Irrigation Scheme will cover the repairing of 3km of water delivery infrastructure, the reconstruction of infield canals, and the rehabilitation of overnight storage dam outlets and access roads.

The model will see each district across the country having 200 hectares under irrigation with the beneficiaries being locals.

Government is stepping up its rural industrialisation agenda with a raft of measures, including incentivising local and foreign investors opting to invest in value chains for rural areas, which are being put in place to trigger economic activity.

The programme is being implemented at 66 irrigation schemes in Matabeleland South, Midlands, Masvingo, and Manicaland provinces, with a targeted hectarage of 5 700 ha.

Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)

As we also reported in yesterday’s issue, Government has drilled over 700 boreholes across the country under the Presidential Rural Development Programme, benefiting over 1,8 million households. Under the programme, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) is set to drill and equip a borehole for each of the country’s 35 000 villages by 2025.

Government is also drilling 9 600 boreholes in schools while each ward will have additional two boreholes for youth horticulture projects.

These are all major strides by a fairly new Government that is rewriting the story of our rural areas.