Agriculture survey to boost investor information base

THE upcoming Agriculture Sector Survey will provide critical information on the state of the country’s agriculture industry to both existing and potential investors, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) has said.
The survey, which is a brainchild of The Financial Gazette and ZAS in partnership with CBZ Bank, will be unveiled at a breakfast meeting in Harare on November 23.
“The thinking behind this initiative was that the survey should go out and collect authentic, independent information on the state of agriculture in the country. This information would then be availed to whoever or whatever sector of the economy requires it,” ZAS chief executive Andrew Matibiri told The Financial Gazette this week.

ZAS chief executive Andrew Matibiri

“We are looking to get very authentic accurate information on the state of agriculture. It will provide information that will be useful for anyone that wants to invest in agriculture or anyone that wants to improve productivity in agriculture and bankers and students and academics and above all, it will feed into national policies.
“This year’s survey will be the fourth edition and it has gotten better with time. It is now much better and very accurate,” he added.
“For anyone who wants to know anything about Zimbabwean agriculture, the sector survey is key, it’s a must go-to or a must read for anyone who wants to get involved in Zimbabwean agriculture.”
Matibiri said understating agriculture was critical for the economy and growth of this critical sector.
“This survey is very important because our economy is 70 percent based on agriculture, 70 percent of our poor population depends on agriculture. Agriculture contributes about 15 percent to the Gross National Product. Whatever happens in agriculture affects all the other sectors,” Matibiri said.
“If we talk about development, in terms of Vision 2030, if agriculture does well then the rest of the economy will do well and that will result in general development across the whole country and all sectors. In agriculture, the boundaries of employment are limitless.”
The survey, according to Matibiri, helps fulfill one of ZAS’s key mandates which is to facilitate improvements in the agriculture sector.
“This survey benefits us greatly because one of our mandates as a society is to generally look at ways to improve our agriculture and one of the pillars of our strategic aims is to provide a platform for the sharing of information and by facilitating this survey, we are playing our part,” he said.
ZAS, which is responsible for the country’s premier agriculture event, the Zimbabwe Agriculture Show held every year in Harare, was established in 1895.
On average, over 200 000 people attend the rebranded Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, formerly known as the Harare Agricultural Show, annually. newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw