Paul Nyathi
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga who was recently appointed as the Minister of Health is continuing with his heavy involvement with the Ministry of Agriculture programmes raising concerns from the public who believe he has really not come to the fold with the Health Ministry.
Chiwenga has been very occupied with the new Presidential Inputs Programme, commonly known as Pfumvudza which attempts to promote conservation farming techniques.
The programme involves use of small plots on smallholder farms and applying the correct agronomic practices for higher returns.
While senior Health officers including nurses and doctors have been on a strike for nearly two months, Chiwenga has not appeared to be tackling the issue.
The Covid-19 scourge is also continuing to ravage the country with very little or no word at all from Chiwenga since his appointment.
The closest that Chiwenga was in attending to the Ministry of Health issues was when he was addressing farmers calling on nurses to return to work as the Covid-19 Pandemic needs their attention. He spoke without paying attention to the grievances presented by the health workers.
Chiwenga last week urged Ministers of State to work closely with officials of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, farmer associations, political leadership, local leadership, stakeholders and the farming communities to ensure the targets set are met.
Small-scale farmers across all eight rural provinces have been given the target of 1,8 million tonnes of cereals and 360 000 tonnes of oil seeds in the forthcoming summer cropping season under Pfumvudza, the climate-proofed upgrade of the previous Presidential Inputs Programme.
This will not only produce almost 90 percent of the annual national food requirements and ensure that once the A1 and A2 farmers have built on that broad base, pushing Zimbabwe into surplus and ensuring industry has the required are materials and larger markets.
“I also expect weekly progress reports that will enable us to assess performance of each province and overall performance of the Pfumvudza Programme.
“I am happy to remind the Provincial Ministers of State that in the spirit of devolution, central Government will be assessing the performance progress of individual provincial economies in terms of overall GDP,” said VP Chiwenga.
He said Government was also going to re-introduce farmer competitions at ward, district and provincial levels to reward hardworking farmers.
“I therefore encourage you to take full advantage of this programme and to ensure that you do all you can to guarantee its success. You have to own the programme and take full responsibility. Extreme ownership matters,” he said.
Under the Pfumvudza concept, communal farmers will practice conservation agriculture for them to benefit under the Climate-Proofed Presidential Inputs Programme.
The concept, which will be applied to maize, traditional grains and oil seeds, will also commercialise smallholder agriculture.
Distribution of inputs for the Pfumvudza Programme has started with seed and fertilisers being delivered to GMB depots.
Farmers are expected to start collecting inputs this week.