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By Charles Dhewa African agriculture requires banks with a vision to invest in infrastructure which can be used by farmers to anchor production in ways that simplify loan repayment. For instance, Vision 2030 should have financial products that speak to a 10-year horizon. Financing inputs is just like providing consumer loans that do not have…
By Joyce Mukucha The impacts of climate disasters have continued to make headlines around the world and this has seen cases of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, domestic violence and sexual exploitation increasing amongst rural based girls and women. Research and statistics indicate that floods, wildfires, and droughts are decimating communities across the globe. Already,…
Tens of thousands of people across Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are still suffering 12 months after Cyclone Idai battered Southern Africa, warned Oxfam yesterday. Cyclone Idai, one of the worst cyclones to hit Africa, made landfall on 14th March 2019. A new Oxfam briefing, ‘After the Storm,’ highlights that over 100,000 people in Mozambique and…
By Anyway Yotamu Government has rolled out a massive irrigation programme targeting 100 thousand hectares which will be turned into green belts of maize and other strategic crops under the smart agriculture concept. The Command Agriculture programme has moved a gear up, with several farmers who have reliable sources of water being targeted under the…
By Charles Dhewa All over the world, information sources are no longer just important for journalists. African policy makers who really want to transform their agro-based economies cannot afford to remain silent about their sources of information. There is emerging consensus to the effect that information from academic institutions, private companies and development agencies is…
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of $3 million CAD from the Canadian Government to life-saving humanitarian operations in Zimbabwe. The funding supports WFP’s rapid scale-up of emergency food assistance to reach almost 55,000 people in Matobo district. Canada’s contribution comes at a crucial time when WFP is working to…
The Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Mr Vangelis Haritatos has said that the agricultural sector is the most significant prime-mover of Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030. He made the remarks at the two-day consultative workshop on the Enabling Business of Agriculture (EBA), pillar 1 of AGRINVEST Initiative that kicked off in Harare today….
By Charles Dhewa There has been a general tendency by developing countries to cherry-pick and deploy some components of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the agriculture sector. Combining infrastructure and ICTs could play a more catalytic role than just using ICTs for promoting extension services. If African countries are going to produce sufficient agricultural…
Canada is investing in the Canadian Agri-Food Sustainability Initiative (CASI) to boost sustainability and build public trust in its agriculture sector. Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced a federal investment of C$560,000 for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) to develop the initiative. It will provide Canadian farmers and processors an online national…
By Joyce Mukucha and Anyway Yotamu Considering that 70 percent of the population in Africa is constituted by small-holder farmers, Oxfam in conjunction with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is working tirelessly to create an enabling environment to transform agriculture markets for the small holder farming households. The main thrust…
By Charles Dhewa Days of doing research for its own sake are numbered in developing countries. The same applies to an enduring tendency by researchers to be satisfied with publishing research findings into journals. Many African researchers are waking up to the fact that academic excellence will not solve teething challenges like mass poverty and…
he African Development Bank (https://www.AfDB.org) urged development finance institutions, NGOs, farmer cooperatives, and the private sector to develop more effective financing solutions for Africa’s fertilizer value chains. The Bank’s call to action came during the Argus Africa Fertilizer Conference held on 19 February. The conference’s theme was Supporting the fertilizer value chain to improve agricultural productivity…
By Joyce Mukucha and Anyway Yotamu In an effort to support the agricultural sector and eradicate hunger and poverty in Zimbabwe, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has handed over a substantial donation to the Horticulture Development Council (HDC), a parastatal which operates under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture,Water,Rural Resettlement. The…
By Charles Dhewa In spite of presence in rural areas by African governments and development agencies there are still no meaningful pathways for uplifting communities out of poverty. A recent trend has seen development agencies working through some kind of consortia in one rural district or county but still after three or four years…
By Anyway Yotamu The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) submitted a fourth letter to Parliament in a bid to evade being grilled by legislators under the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement over US$27 million they received from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. GMAZ was set to appear for hearing…
Global Renaissance Investments have earmarked an international Infrastructure Summit and Expo involving South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe that will take place in the resort town of Victoria Falls from 4 to 7 March 2020 at the famous Kingdom Hotel. Addressing journalists at the five-star Meikles Hotel in Harare today, Mr. Ngoni Dzirutwe, the Chief Executive…
Leaders acknowledged the scope of the challenge but sounded a note of optimism African countries have made progress toward eradicating malnutrition and stunting but need to do more to hit United Nations malnutrition targets by 2025. This was the main message of a meeting that took place during the 33rd African Union Summit. Speakers at…
The Environmental Management Agency, Birdlife Zimbabwe, NetOne, and Haka Game Park, among other stakeholders have joined hands in commemorating the belated World Wetlands Day under the theme, “Wetlands and Biodiversity.” This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, therefore the…
Mr. William Kojo Agyemang-Bonsu, the Manager of the Mitigation and Transparency Support (Mitigation, Data and Analysis) unit of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat has commended Zimbabwe stakeholder collaboration towards coming up with quality greenhouse gases inventory reports. “As per our assessment, the work that has been carried out is fair in the sense…
Mr. Alois Tsiga, the Project Coordinator for the Fourth National Communications and First Biennial Update under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for Zimbabwe has said there are low hanging fruits for the country in complying with such requirements. Speaking to Spiked Online Media in Harare today, Mr. Tsiga revealed that national…
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has described the recent invasion of deserts locust in the East African region as “the worst experience in the past 25 years.” The invasion has presented a major threat to food security and impacted negatively on farming and pastoral communities in the region. The destructive desert locust has…
Cellulant Corporation (www.Cellulant.com) – the pan-African technology company – has empowered Africa’s agriculture sector with the hosting of its inaugural partners’ summit in Lagos, Nigeria and the assurance to leverage on technology to help block inefficiency and wastages in Africa’s Agric value chain courtesy of its improved payment and marketplace solutions, Tingg and Agrikore. Tingg,…
By Charles Dhewa Once raw materials leave Africa for other parts of the world, there is no clear pathway fir re-investing back. The structure of the global economy is such that Africans who migrate to the diaspora will not be able to re-invest back home as much as they would want. Likewise those who leave…
By Charles Dhewa Instead of shelling out all the land to the current generation, African countries should leave much land uncommitted so that future generations will decide new uses at the time. In fact land should be considered a fluid resource like knowledge. Why should a fundamental natural resource like land be tied to…
By Anyway Yotamu The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Dr Sekai Nzenza has issued a stern warning to retailers against hoarding of the maize meal with regards the Roller Meal subsidy programme. The statement comes as retail shops are reportedly running out of maize meal due to panic buying by shoppers and hoarding by some…
By Rebecca Smith Growing weed at home is an excellent way of keeping your supply steady. Growing marijuana also heightens your love and attachment to the plant because you get to experience and observe each growth phase of cannabis. Marijuana use continues to increase day in and day out due to its numerous medicinal and…
By Charles Dhewa While economists have been schooled into projecting agricultural income starting from the size of the land, such an approach is now found wanting in the knowledge economy. There is no doubt that land is important but evaluating natural resources for investment purposes should go beyond hectares of land to the quality of…
By Dr Vandana Shiva George Monbiot’s Lab-grown food will soon destroy farming – and save the planet is a dystopian vision of the future, with no people on the land, and humans eating fake food produced in giant industrial factories by genetically engineered microbes. As Monbiot concludes in his article “Farmfree food will…
A record 45 million people – mostly women and children – in the 16-nation Southern African Development Community are gravely food insecure following repeated drought, widespread flooding and economic disarray. As the crisis deepens, the world must step up now to save lives and enable communities to adapt to climate change, the United Nations World…
The Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (ZCSOSUNA) is calling on the government of Zimbabwe to make attainable and measurable commitments in preparation for the 2020 Japan Nutrition for Growth Summit. “As the country’s Civil Society Alliance in Scaling Up Nutrition, we applaud the government of Zimbabwe for making a commitment during the…
The European Union has mobilised an additional 16.8 million EUR (approx. 18.7 million USD) to help address emergency food needs and support vulnerable people in Zimbabwe. The funding comes as large parts of the country and the wider region of Southern Africa are in the grip of the harshest drought in decades, which is compounded…
By Charles Dhewa African smallholder farmers are not the only ones famous for producing commodities before conducting market research. Corporates are not immune to such a disease. Instead of investing in market research, most African corporate companies prefer monopolising the air waves, bill boards along urban roads and mainstream print media with advertisements. The consequences…
By Joyce Mukucha and Anyway Yotamu The newly appointed United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator to Zimbabwe Ms Mario Rebeiro has paid a courtesy call to the Vice President Kembo Mohadi at his Munhumutapa Offices in Harare to discuss issues concerning food security in Zimbabwe. Speaking to the press on the 10th of January 2020,VP Mohadi…
It is one thing to be blessed with natural resources such as fertile soils and water but quite another to be able to explain and convince investors about opportunities embedded in those resources. Given the intensifying competition for investment and influence, the art of articulating opportunities can no longer be a preserve for government officials…
By Joyce Mukucha and Anyway Yotamu Oil Castor Zimbabwe has promised to eliminate the fuel crisis currently prevailing in the nation through producing and supplying bio motor oil extracted from castor bean plant. The company, through its chemistry and engineering department revealed plans to set up a fully-fledged market in Zimbabwe by releasing 20W40 Bio-motor oil and…
By Joyce Mukucha As climate change adverse effects persist around the globe, most women and young girls residing in urban-distant communities are becoming more affected as they bear the brunt of the negative impacts. Due to negative impacts posed by climate change, marginalised women and girls encounter violence, financial instability and child marriage among other…
Escalating hunger needs in sub-Saharan Africa dominate a World Food Programme (WFP) analysis of global hunger hotspots in the first half of 2020 with millions of people requiring life-saving food assistance in Zimbabwe, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central Sahel region in the coming months. The sheer scale and complexity of…
Last week, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Zimbabwe completed its last cash distribution of 2019, which supported some 19,000 vulnerable residents in Harare’s sub-urban district of Epworth. Those deemed most food insecure have been receiving monthly cash transfers from WFP since June, as part of an urban pilot project funded by the…
By Charles Dhewa A couple of questions can motivate African policy makers to think critically and reflect about possible starting points for transforming African agriculture from 2020 and beyond. There is no longer any doubt that most imported policy recommendations have failed to fully develop African economies. To that end, as 2020 beckons African agricultural…
… as we commemorate the International Year of Plant Health 2020 By Mathew Abang In Africa, transboundary plant pests and diseases are costly to combat because control efforts are usually undertaken after huge crop losses have already occurred. Improving national capacities to sustainably monitor, prevent and reduce crop losses will have multiple advantages, but…
By Byron Mutingwende The Ruwa Local Board has set a target of planting over 1 million trees in five years, Benam Nyawo, the local authority’s environmental health officer has said. Nyawo revealed the plan at the belated commemoration of the National Tree Planting Day at the Chiremba Recreational Grounds in Ruwa. “Our…
The Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) is building grass-root women and the community’s resilience to climate change, it has been established. With support from Huairou Commission, ZPHCA is undertaking efforts to reduce potential impacts of this natural catastrophe by embarking on awareness campaigns, workshops as well as providing peer education and information reading…
The loan is expected to contribute significantly to food security, food import substitution, and household incomes by creating jobs and increasing local productivity and distribution The African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Board of Directors has approved a $60m loan to Elnefeidi Group Holding Company to help finance its long-term agriculture and food expansion programme. The planned…
Dealing with transboundary pests is tricky at the best of times. Standards, practices, capacity levels and engagement vary across countries and regions, and responses are often ad hoc and ineffective. However, matters become even more complex when the pest in question flies over borders, threatens the food security and livelihoods of millions, and causes severe…
By Charles Dhewa Challenges facing each African economy are so many and so diverse that trying to address them all at once is like chasing too many hares and at the end failing to catch one. That is why taking a sectoral approach makes sense. For instance, there is no longer any doubt that agriculture…
