Following the millions of hectares that were repossessed by the black majority during the land reform programme, the Government has assured the nation that there will be sufficient maize through the food self sufficiency programmes.
The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Dr. Anxious Masuka said this year, the nation will have adequate maize through the Pfumvudza Command Agriculture Program.
He was addressing members of the fourth estate and students who attended the joint command and staff course number 34 at Zimbabwe Staff College in Harare yesterday after he visited Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks to underscoring the prospects and challenges of the Command Agriculture Programme.
He said Government was targeting a minimum production of 2 million metric tonnes of maize grown on 400 000 hectares of both dry and irrigated land this year.
“The food self-sufficiency programme is primarily to ensure and assure the nation that they will be sufficient maize out of the millions of hectares that were taken during the Land Reform Programme and that would target to produce 2 million metric tonnes of maize.
Minister Masuka also pointed out the Agriculture Recovery Plan by Government which seeks to ensure Zimbabwe’s food security.
“What we aim to do is to attack three things. The first is to invest permanently in maize importation, the second is to reduce wheat importation and the third one is to gradually eliminate soya bean importation. So the three crops and then we said the programme would be largely called Agriculture Recovery Plan.”
