via Zimbabwe signs agriculture agreement with 7 partners | The Herald November 23, 2013
Zimbabwe and seven development partners yesterday signed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme compact, a document that is expected to unlock resources and provide funding to the country’s agricultural sector.
The compact, an initiative of the African Union, outlines agreements on policies, strategies, priorities areas and investments plans of the country’s agricultural sector.
CAADP was endorsed by the AU in 2003 and it encourages member states to allocate at least 10 percent of the annual budget to agriculture to attain a sectorial annual growth of six percent.
The institutions who rallied behind the compact, through signatures, and pledged to support the mobilisation of resources include the African Union Commission through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Comesa, the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation, European Union, local farmers’ unions and representatives of the private sector.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made signed on behalf of the Government.
Minister Chinamasa said Government would take the necessary fiscal and non-fiscal measures to support the country’s agricultural sector.
“We will do everything in our power and we will be guided by Zim Asset in what we do and measures we take for the next five years,” he said.
“Measures will be taken to ensure that 10 percent of the revenue is devoted and committed to agriculture. Agriculture inputs must be availed to farmers at affordable prices and this is a tall order because we are referring to a process not an event.
“This is something we hope to achieve over two or three seasons,” he said.
Minister Chinamasa said Government would reduce the cost of fertilisers and make water for irrigation affordable to farmers.
“We undertake to make resources available for rehabilitation of small scale irrigation schemes which have collapsed over the years,” he said.
“We want to establish new ones because over the years we have constructed many water bodies whose water is not being exploited for the benefit of farming and there has to be a commitment to take that water to the fields and farms.”
Minister Chinamasa said there was need to link agriculture with other sectors of the economy and reject the “dumping” of cheap subsidised imports from other countries that were of poor quality.
He called on financial institutions to adapt to the new structure in agriculture, adding that the land tenure in the country should be debated and brought to finality.
Minister Chinamasa said farmers needed support to increase their yields, while research institutions should be restored as they were engines for agriculture growth and value addition.
The implementation of CAADP requires a member state to have an investment plan and Zimbabwe drafted its National Investment Plan (ZAIP) this year which outlines priority investment areas in the agriculture sector.
Twenty eight out of 54 African countries have investments plans valued at US$50 billion.
AU Commission representative and CAADP head in the NEPAD agency Mr Martin Bwalya said there was need to transform agriculture in all the 54 African countries.
“AU is committed in brokering financing partnerships, supporting building systems, policy designs and programmes and also learning from each other,” he said.
Zimbabwe is the 37th African country to sign the compact and Equatorial Guinea and Congo Brazzaville will sign theirs next week.
COMMENTS
This fits in with the Zanu’s open statement in 2000 that they would “dismantle commercial agriculture down to the last brick” using all means necessary (theft, arson, rape, torture and murder – including genocide) and then “rebuild it on their terms.” Of course each chef would get a highly developed property “on the house” in the process which proved to be an adequate incentive for them to join the club. Now the likes of the CFU and Scoones will run to Zanu to prostitute honesty, law and order – and justice “in the interests of moving forward!” This will mimic the MDC in the GNU and the MDC in terms of supporting the constitution that has legalised all that Zanu has done. Purely from a tactical point of view Zanu have achieved what they set out to do – with the help of the CFU and the MDC! Business has been destroyed – including agribusiness – with the support of CFU/MDC by default. It is difficult to believe that either the MDC or the CFU are fit to offer any form of leadership – apart from the one that goes back to Zanu Headquarters like a homing pigeon?
Real farmers hold on to your Title Deeds, as when this madness is over and there is rule of law in Zimbabwe, your title deeds will hold up in a court of law and the legal owners will have their farms returned or at least a full and comprehensive market value compensation payout.
Too right Clive – it happened in Poland many years ago and the looted and pillaged land was returned to the Title Deed holder.
Sutherland I think you are dreaming.Who is the legal owner of the land.Can you stand up and say we the black people from whom you from you forcible abducted land by force belongs to you. You think Africa is your promised land. You are fooling yourself. even us the blind man can now see your objectives. What title deeds. My citizenship is mu title deed to the land that has been giving us foods since time immemorial.Its over buddy. Its over. There will nothing like that day dreamer.I am shocked by your statement. I will stand to fight if it ever happens again.
You idiots who say “my citizenship is my title deed” forget that the land YOU stole was from people who have the same citizenship. The title deed came from the government which recognized ownership of the land by the holders of the title deeds until the government found out it was losing support. You racists will never learn. That’s okay, starve. 2.2 million starve because you’re a bunch of racist idiots without a clue. You don’t even own the land. One slip up, if you do ONE thing the government doesn’t like (such as voting for MDC) you are refused inputs and financing. THAT ISN’T OWNERSHIP, FOOL. You are a sellout of your own kind.
Input loot to be plundered
irrigation was available you knob until you stole the pipes, destroyed the motors and can’t provide electricity, just so you ministers can drive nice cars and invite your friends to slaughter the wildlife and ruin the best agric country in the world
So now that there’s a plan everything will be right, right? The reason nothing has gone right until now is because we didn’t have THIS plan! If it’s supported by so many entities it has to succeed, right? I mean, the Finance Minister and the Agricultural Minister have both endorsed it so it must be good and of course this government will live up to the promises contained within it, right? We can trust them, right?
what can one say???? just more of the same and avoiding the real issue of property rights and protection. These things will never be solved as long as zanu still harbors their racial and political prejudices.
The Mugabe government signed countless during its 34 years in power. Zimbabwe has absolutely nothing to show for it. We do not need plans. We need to get cellphone farmers off the land and allow genuine farmers to do the job they are passionate about.
As for the issue of land tenure, there is absolutely nothing to debate. As is the case all over the world, we need to make land a bankable asset with title and can be bought and sold. That way banks would be in a position to issue loans. It is as simple as that comrade Chinamasa.
Well said Clive Sutherland. Any former farmer who had his Title deeds with a bank as security against his loan must write to that bank and ask for those deeds. When the Zim kwacha ceased so did the debt. All you will be needed to pay is $120 – $150 lawyers fees to cancel the bond. I did and I got my deeds. Do it before the banks sign those deeds over to ZANU.
Zimbabweans have become the laughing stock of the world. We had such a beautiful and prosperous country and ZANU destroyed it. We are now beggars. Is it built in to the soul of every Zimbabwean that we will be cursed to be beggars for eternity. ZANU have FAILED in everything they have done for the last 33 years. There is not one single parastatal or Rural or Town council body able to pay salaries let alone run a profitable business. We have had to beg for food for 15 years. We are forced to go cap in hand to the hated western governments to give us money to feed our people. SHAME SHAME SHAME Robert Mugabe. You have turned your once proud people into jobless destitute sniveling beggars by your arrogance and greed.