Ngoni Kudenga

The agricultural sector’s key role in ensuring food security has been affected by the successive droughts which occurred during the last two agricultural seasons and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Zimbabwe Agricultural Society President, Ngoni Kudenga has said.

Addressing the 8^th Annual National Agribusiness Conference (ANAC) held yesterday at the Business Hub in Harare, Kudenga said that the conference sought to focus on how the agricultural sector could be transformed to achieve the desired 10 percent sector growth annually, in pursuit of Vision 2030.

The ZAS boss bemoaned the recurrent droughts and the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the sector’s ability to ensure national food security.

“Agriculture’s contribution to the Zimbabwean economy is well documented, but the country remains food insecure due to successive droughts and low production and low productivity,” Kudenga said.

“The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has disrupted supply and demand and disrupted agro-supply chains due to pandemic induced lockdowns globally. This has led to the loss of income and disrupted livelihoods of farmers, especially women and youth,” he said.

Kudenga also pointed out that the droughts and the coronavirus pandemic had resulted in increased food insecurity and price instability.

“COVID-19 has increased food insecurity and sharpened price volatility while many farmers are unable to market their produce. It is against the background of two successive droughts, the COVID-19 pandemic deleterious effects, and low production and productivity and consequently poor food and nutrition security, that the 8th ANAC is being held,” Kudenga said.

Kudenga highlighted the objectives of the conference as follows: discussing how agricultural production and productivity could be enhanced, coming up with sustainable solutions to the challenges that the country is facing in the entire agricultural sector value chain, evaluating the 2019/20 agricultural season output and discussing how to increase the 2020/2021 agricultural season output.

The 8^th ANAC also deliberated on the country’s preparedness for the 2020/2021 rainfall season.

The conference, which ran under the theme, Agriculture Recovery Plan was attended by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Dr Anxious Masuka and other stakeholders. The annual meeting is organised by ZAS and the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) and it normally runs as part of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show programme in August. The exhibition was deferred to October due to the coronavirus pandemic.