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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
FARMERS have been urged to target a bumper harvest this farming season to reduce the country’s import bill.

Addressing farmers, seed producers and cotton ginners during a Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) 80th annual congress in Gweru yesterday, Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos said the country should be food sufficient in order to cut on food imports.

He said besides gobbling a lot of the much needed foreign currency, food imports result in problems such as foreign pests which end up costing the country.

Deputy Minister Haritatos said there is a need to increase food production so that the country becomes self-sufficient.

“We have the issue of fall armyworm in the country and do you know that the armyworm is from Brazil? It was imported into the country through the maize imports because the country had not harvested enough to feed the nation. There is therefore a need for farmers to strive to produce not just enough but even surplus for export so that we avoid food imports and save forex as well as avoid importing pests which affect our yields,” he said.

The Deputy Minister said the strength of farmers unions like ZFU is of paramount importance to guarantee the success of the agriculture sector.

The annual congress was running under the theme, “Building back better: lessons from the Covid-19 experience”.

“The theme resonates well with the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy which seeks to develop a robust agriculture sector that is capable of turning around and effectively steering Zimbabwe towards its Vision 2030. Our ultimate goal is to reform, restructure, rebuild and transform agriculture in order to guarantee food and nutrition security and self-sufficiency,” said Deputy Minister Haritatos.

President Mnangagwa has launched the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy which seeks to achieve a US$8,2 billion agriculture economy by 2025. The strategy is a composite plan of action drawn from the Agriculture Recovery and Livestock Growth Plans.

Deputy Minister Haritatos said Government is also targeting to increase agriculture exports to earn the much-needed foreign currency.

He said it was unfortunate that the sector has been underperforming, contributing just around nine percent to the GDP and resulting in a huge import bill as the country imported maize, soya beans and wheat.

“It is therefore important that farmers take farming as a business through focusing on increased production which results in high profit margins thereby contributing significantly to economic growth,” said Deputy Minister Haritatos.