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Precious Manomano, Harare Bureau

MORE than 11 million people have benefitted from the 10 Presidential Schemes that were introduced to boost household and national food security across the country.

Through the people-tailored schemes, beneficiaries are earning a decent living, getting employment and being uplifted to prosperity — setting the base for the attainment of an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.

The schemes were introduced by the Second Republic to address poverty, unemployment and malnutrition levels amongst the rural population.
The programmes are the Presidential Inputs Scheme, Presidential Cotton Scheme, Presidential Blitz Tick Grease, Presidential Rural Horticulture Scheme, Presidential Community Fisheries Scheme, Presidential Rural Poultry Scheme, Presidential Rural Goat Pass-on Scheme, Presidential Solar Scheme, Presidential Borehole Scheme and Presidential Rural Development Scheme.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Professor Obert Jiri said all the schemes, that mainly fall within his Ministry’s purview, are meant to develop the country.

“The Government has crafted the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy which seeks to grow the agriculture sector to a US$14 billion industry focusing on climate proofing the sector at individual household level through the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme and dam construction to enhance large scale farming. We should see value addition in the rural areas.

“More than 11 million will be empowered through these schemes as Government moves to ensure the attainment of an upper middle-income economy by 2030. Farmers will have access to nutritional food and income through exporting products from the Horticulture scheme and other schemes too,” he said.

In 2021, President Mnangagwa extended the Pfumvudza/Intwasa scheme to include cotton as part of accelerating rural modernisation and industrialisation.
This is in line with the Second Republic’s thrust of modernising the country’s crucial agriculture sector vis-à-vis enhancing production and productivity in line with the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy.

Under the Presidential Cotton Scheme, farmers are recording high yields courtesy of the inputs which motivated many to take up production of the white gold.
More than 360 000 farmers benefitted from free inputs under the scheme where farmers get free basal and top-dressing fertiliser, seed and chemicals.

The intervention by the Government in cotton production was meant to revive the sector, which was collapsing due to low prices offered by merchants and other problems related to inputs.

Some farmers in cotton growing areas had abandoned the crop after prices fell and merchants had reduced input packages citing side-marketing by farmers, further affecting production.

Under the Presidential Rural Poultry scheme, at least three million rural households are benefitting from the programme in all the country’s eight rural provinces.
The scheme is set to improve nutrition, increase rural income and alleviate poverty through commercialising rural poultry production.

Benefits of the scheme include table eggs, fertilised eggs for hatching, meat from excess cocks and manure for their gardens.

On the other hand, the Presidential Fisheries Scheme has been introduced in 1 200 dams across the country with 50 000 fingerlings set to be released into each dam by 2025.

As of April this year, nearly 12 million tilapia fingerlings had been released into 1 010 fish ponds and 59 dams across the country under the scheme.
Meanwhile, over one million households are benefitting from the Presidential Blitz Tick Grease Scheme.

Under the scheme, households get a kilogramme of tick grease for free as the Government strengthens measures to save livestock and combat the spread of tick-borne diseases especially Theileriosis, popularly known as January disease.

The scheme was launched in 2020 under the Livestock Growth Plan. Under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, the Second Republic is assisting 3,5 million farmers with inputs.

The idea is to improve productivity levels and the programme is now being replicated across Africa after showing positive results in Zimbabwe. This season, the Government is targeting 9,5 million plots to combat drought and ensure enhanced food security through increased production and empowerment of smallholder farmers.

As part of improving earnings in rural areas, the Second Republic is also drilling boreholes to increase horticulture production, and setting up Village Business Units and industries to arrest rural-urban migration.

Horticulture has been identified as an additional driver of rural prosperity with three million households across the country now targeted as water supplies and inputs become available.

President Mnangagwa last year launched the Presidential Rural Horticulture Scheme under the Presidential Horticulture Transformation Plan, to increase access to irrigation and potable water for communities in rural areas. This largely involves drilling village boreholes, one per village, over five years with some of the water allocated to households and some for irrigating the horticulture plots.

The Presidential Rural Horticulture Transformation Plan is targeting 2,3 million households who will venture into fruit production and village nutrition gardens.
Under the Presidential Rural Development Programme, a total of 35 000 Village Business Units (VBUs) and 9 600 school Business Units shall be established by 2025 and they will spur rural industrialisation and address food security and income generation.

VBUs have paid dividends to the rural population with some having their lives transformed. Most beneficiaries testified that production had proved to be a source of income as well as the creation of employment.

In Manicaland, for example, the Village Agro-Business Units have been established in various villages, including Chisuma, Temaruru, Tamburikayi, Hakwata, Chichesa, Mutema Secondary and at Chief Mutema’s homestead.

The Second Republic has also introduced the Presidential Goat Scheme which will benefit 35 000 villages including traditional chiefs, headmen and village heads and a possible 1,8 million homesteads.

The programme seeks to boost breeding stock and increase numbers and quality. It will see more than 600 000 goats being distributed to the small-scale sector.
Government has so far drilled over 3 000 boreholes under the Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme to ensure that Zimbabweans have access to clean and safe water.

Families can now access clean water from solar-powered boreholes and start community gardens that will alleviate the majority of them from poverty as they engage in growing horticultural products.

The Presidential Solar Scheme was introduced this year to tackle climate change, support sustainable agriculture and provide affordable electricity. It is also designed to uplift rural livelihoods, enhance agricultural productivity and boost food security.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Dr Shadreck Makombe said the schemes are transforming people’s lives, especially in rural areas.

“We appreciate different schemes for positively transforming the rural population. To sustain the current growth trajectory our markets must reform. Attention must be paid to the primary producers to ensure the farmer looks forward to going back to the field.

“All these schemes are paying dividends to the rural population. Many benefits have been derived from these schemes leading to better standards of living. Some are even sending children to schools using the money they earn from these projects,” he said.