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WITH the bulk of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region likely to receive normal to above-normal rainfall, Government is not taking any chances but preparing adequately for a bumper harvest.

Food security is one of the top priorities under the Second Republic, as the country angles towards a formidable agriculture economy that will contribute towards the attainment of upper-middle income status.

Recent examples of the massive work being done by Government include construction of Lake Gwayi-Shangani which will start receiving significant inflows in the 2021/22 rain season, and the deployment of business development managers to community irrigation schemes countrywide to help boost production and enhance rural industrialisation.

Waiting for the rains is not good enough! Government knows this, hence the massive investment in the revival of the agriculture sector.

The target of 350 000ha nationally to be put under irrigation once the country’s water storage capacity reaches 12 billion cubic metres is testimony to the fact that we will no longer rely on rain-fed agriculture.

Rain-fed agriculture depends heavily on rainfall patterns which have been hard-hit by climate change.

This is why irrigation farming is the future. But to produce, knowledge is needed.

This is why the move by Government to ensure irrigation schemes are properly managed is most welcome.

Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) chairman Mr Ivan Craig said the deployment of business development managers was part of the State enterprise’s operationalisation of Statutory Instrument 38 of 2021.

Among other things, the legal instrument makes it mandatory for irrigation-based projects to operate as business entities in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which identifies agriculture as one of the major economic drivers.

Mr Craig said they had so far deployed 26 business development managers to work with community members in improving operations and help realise the much-needed returns that push sustainable economic growth and at the same time addressing issues of food security.

The Gwayi-Shangani irrigation project is a game changer in the country’s agriculture revolution because it is being used as the model for future irrigation schemes.

It is also the star project under the planned massive 10 000ha National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP) irrigation project.

The lake, which has a holding capacity of 650 million cubic metres of water, and pipeline project are major components of the NMZWP, which was first mooted in 1912, but had failed to take off under previous administrations.

Under the current political administration, the project is well on course and the agriculture sector set to reach dizzy heights.

The deployment of business development managers was the beginning of good things to come.