Collaboration to take centre stage at farming season launch event

ZIMBABWE will on Thursday, November 21, launch its historic 2024 -2025 national summer farming season at a breakfast event in Harare where industry collaboration is expected to take centre stage.

Bankrolled by leading Pan-African financial services giant Ecobank Zimbabwe, and organised by the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society in partnership with The Financial Gazette, the season launch event has attracted interest from key industry associations in Zimbabwe’s agriculture value chain.

The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development Dr Anxious Masuka is expected to headline this groundbreaking event as authoritative voices in the agriculture value chain converge their minds to empower all stakeholders with important insights that will enhance their productivity for national gains.

Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka

The agriculture sector remains Zimbabwe’s largest GDP contributor, accounting for 17 percent, sustaining almost 67 percent of national livelihoods, and contributing 63 percent of raw materials to the manufacturing sector, making it an anchor sector for the actualisation of our shared national aspirations, including job creation, industrialisation, guaranteeing social security through food security, and realisation of our national vision of becoming an upper-middle income economy by 2030.

In 2020, His Excellency President E.D Mnangagwa officially launched the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, a five-year programme adopted by the government to revive, restructure, reform, rebuild, and transform the agriculture sector to a US$8.2 billion agriculture economy by 2025, contributing 20 percent to GDP.

As His Excellency launched the agriculture blueprint, he intimated that its success would heavily depend on a coordinated and multisectoral approach. Additionally, this blueprint is positioned to create a robust agriculture sector that will turn around the economy and achieve food and nutrition security in the face of an increasing population and the vagaries of climate change.

At the centre of this agriculture strategy lies government and private sector partnerships in enhancing investment opportunities for increased productivity and maximum land utilisation.

Ecobank Zimbabwe’s financial sponsorship of the farming season launch not only demonstrates their commitment to the government’s call for collaboration in reviving, rebuilding and transforming our agriculture sector but also shows Ecobank’s broader approach of socially investing in building sustainable communities for inclusive national development in line with global sustainability protocols.

“When a leading brand collaborates with other private sector players and the public sector to make a difference in the Zimbabwean economy, this is laudable.

 “We commend Ecobank Zimbabwe for taking the initiative to anchor the country’s efforts towards improved productivity for food security in the 2024-2025 farming season – your investment in this national cause will truly transform Zimbabwe’s agriculture fortunes”, The Financial Gazette’s Managing Director, Lewis Chikurunhe, said.

The farming season launch is themed, “Zim Agriculture – Forward Together” as the sector seeks to collaborate its efforts and ideas at this breakfast gathering to guarantee a successful 2024-2025 summer farming season.

As the lead event organisers, the Zimbabwe Agriculture Society is happy to bring together key players in Zimbabwe’s agriculture value chain for a noble cause of enhancing productivity in the sector as the 2024-2025 farming season unfolds.

“We are very excited to see collaboration in action among Zimbabwe’s agriculture stakeholders ahead of the crucial 2024-2025 farming season whose prospects look bright”, the ZAS CEO Andrew Matibiri said as he thanked Ecobank Zimbabwe for sponsoring the launch breakfast.

With the leading Pan-African bank on our side, preparations for the 2024-2025 summer farming season are gathering pace, and national agriculture stakeholders commend Ecobank Zimbabwe for making this imperative season’s preparatory interface possible.