Bulawayo, (New Ziana)- Zimbabwe is on the path to agricultural and rural transformation, buoyed by a positive rainfall forecast and steady growth across all major value chains, a Cabinet Minister as said.
Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka said this on Monday while delivering his keynote address at the opening of his Ministry strategic planning workshop being held in the second largest city.
“It has just been confirmed by the Meteorological Services that we will receive normal to above-normal rains this year. I can already see that the rains will be more widespread,” he said.
He stressed the need to translate weather forecasts into agriculture-specific advisories, warning that if his Ministry failed to occupy that space others would do so.
“We have a meteorological focus, but we need an agricultural focus. If you don’t fill this space, I see the tendency by those in meteorology and other fields to occupy the space. We must fill that gap. I am hoping that every week we will issue the interpretation of what the weather forecast means agriculturally ,” he said.
Masuka said his Ministry had distributed rain gauges to all Agricultural Business Advisory Officers(ABAO) (formerly agricultural technical extension officers) nationwide to support hyper-localised forecasting for the 35 000 villages in the country.
He said the country’s economy, now at US$44 billion and projected to grow towards US$54–55 billion this year, will keep the country on course to become an upper-middle-income society by 2030.
“This growth must translate to livelihoods in rural communities, where 62 percent of Zimbabweans, about 9 million people, live, largely dependent on subsistence farming. How do we become the vehicle that transforms what they are doing so that they too become economic participants? How do we ensure development is felt in the villages?” he asked.
Masuka highlighted significant progress under the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy (AFSRTS), noting that agriculture had grown from a US$5.6 billion industry in 2020 to an expected US$10.3 billion by the end of this year, outperforming earlier projections by over US$3.2bn.
“Under National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2), agriculture is projected to become a US$15.8 billion industry by 2030. This meeting sets the stage for the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy 2026–2030. We want agriculture to be the catalyst for national transformation,” he said, also emphasising on the need to address post-harvest losses, which he said should now be a national priority.
He said although Zimbabwe projected 2.3 million tons of maize, the actual figure after independent surveys was 1.8 million tons, representing a 20 percent loss within planning margins.
Masuka encouraged stronger focus on waste and loss reduction, benchmarking against regional and international best practice.
He said maize production peaked to 2.7 million tons in 2021/22 while wheat output now sits at 640 000 tons, compared to levels 10 years ago when the country could not feed itself for even two months.
“Milk production is now 130 million litres, matching national consumption and eliminating the need for imports. This is the transformation happening in agriculture. If you can’t see it, hear it. If you can’t hear it, feel it. If you can’t feel it, smell it,” he said.
Masuka said a new Cabinet Committee on Rural Development will begin work this week, bringing together 13 Ministries to align efforts and improve efficiencies in service delivery to rural households.
He emphasised the importance of accurate agricultural statistics, calling for strong collaboration with the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT) to avoid misinformation.
“When you want agricultural statistics, you must go to professionals. We need quality data that becomes information for policy formulation. No one must doubt our data,” he said.
New Ziana
