According to Minister
of State in charge of monitoring and implementation of special agriculture and related programs, Davis Marapira, there is a strong need for the government and its partners to invest more in the capacitation of farmers in the horticulture sector. This way, these farmers can increase their annual contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product .
Marapira said current production levels in the sector were below 5 percent and that the target was to increase GDP contributions to 10 percent and above. “Horticulture in Zimbabwe at the moment is still very low, the production is below 5 percent,” said the Minister. “A good example is citrus, as a country we used to do 10 000 hectares and currently, we are only doing 5 000 hectares and citrus production has shifted from the northern part (Mazowe) to the southern part (Beitbridge) of the country.”
The Minister said in Beitbridge some companies were doing almost 3,000 hectares of citrus. He said these need to be assisted to expand and increase production to be able to meet the demand for citrus locally and for the international market.
The Zimbabwean government expects horticulture farming to also peak in the Tokwe Mukosi area where the type of climate, which is in regions 4 and 5 is conducive for citrus and mango farming. Marapira said a lot of products within the horticulture system were being exported and that it was important for those entities falling under the sector to put more focus on value addition.
Source: chronicle.co.zw