mbulelo smpofu
Edgar Vhera, Harare Bureau
NINE irrigation investments have been signed off by Government with private companies as the Second Republic upscales its resolve to ensure food security and agricultural raw materials for industry and export from unpredictable weather patterns that cause production and supply disruptions.
Irrigation farming is now seen as critical to ensure continuous and constant output instead of relying solely on rainfall.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri presided over the signing of irrigation investment agreements with nine companies in Harare last week. These irrigation investments are set to transform Zimbabwe into a weather-independent food hub.
Prof Jiri reiterated the importance of transforming the country into a food-secure nation, regardless of weather conditions, through irrigation investments. He acknowledged the role of investors as crucial partners in this initiative, emphasising that the Government’s role is to facilitate progress to ensure more and more farmers have access to irrigation.
The next steps involve practical implementation, focusing on land and dam development for irrigation systems, with the Department of Irrigation and Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) being key.
“Today we start wetting the paper, but the eventual goal is to wet the fields. If we do that, we would have succeeded in climate-proofing our agriculture,” said Prof Jiri.
Writing on his X post, Prof Jiri said: “Transforming Zimbabwe into a weather-independent food hub remains a core priority of the Ministry. On Monday, nine irrigation investment deals were finalised, marking a significant step towards achieving this critical goal.”
This comes in the wake of the official opening of the National Irrigation Investment Conference by President Mnangagwa earlier this year, where after noting that the El Nino-drought has not spared Zimbabwe, he called for more targeted interventions to ensure that the country and Africa at large become food secure once again.
“It is now urgent and imperative for us to think outside the box to de-risk our nation from the vagaries of climate change. Similarly, stakeholders and communities alike should accelerate the implementation and adoption of mechanisms to climate-proof our agriculture sector, beginning at the household level,” he said.
The country secured over US$227 million in two investment deals for irrigation projects at the Zimbabwe Irrigation Investment Conference.
Another US$1,5 billion in funding was secured to develop major dams such as Musami Dam and the completion of the Gwayi-Tshangani pipeline, among several other key infrastructure projects.
The concept is not so much centred on infrastructure but rather on what the water captured within that infrastructure is intended to do, President Mnangagwa stressed as he has led the country to adopt a new ethos and philosophy: “a dam as an economy” to accelerate economic development.
The dam as an economy philosophy has expanded the project scope to include dam construction, irrigation development, hydroelectricity generation, potable water and fisheries development as fundamental project tenets to accelerate rural development for the attainment of Vision 2030, aiming to elevate and improve livelihoods while leaving no one and no place behind.
The ambitious dam projects are expected to expand the country’s irrigated land from the current 217 000 hectares to 496 000 hectares in the present phase, guaranteeing national food security and resilience against climate change.
The area under irrigation rose 45 percent from 150 000 hectares in 2020 to the current 217 000 hectares.
Zimbabwe requires 350 000 hectares of irrigated land to produce about 1,8 million tonnes of grain and attain food self-sufficiency, with the raw materials for agro-industries also needing “wet fields”.
daniel chigunwe
