Story by Tendai Munengwa
BRAZIL – THE Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Dr Anxious Masuka says Zimbabwe is pivoting to learn and benefit from the Brazil agriculture and food security model.
Dr Masuka is leading a Zimbabwean delegation at the Brazil Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Fight Against Hunger and Rural Development Conference in Brasília.
Several African countries are attending the conference to discuss and map the way forward on how Africa can benefit from the new Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty being spearheaded by Brazilian President Lula Da Silva.
“We are happy to be here joining other African ministers at this high-level meeting. This is the second of its kind to benefit Zimbabwe. As you are aware, in 2015, Zimbabwe got 400 tractors under the Brazil Food for Africa Programme which helped boost production on over 4000 hectares, so we expect to learn a lot from this global alliance against food hunger being championed by Brazil’s President,” he said.
Dr Masuka noted that Zimbabwe will derive lessons from the vibrant Brazil Rural Policy to propel President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s dream to transform rural communities under Vision 2030.
“We are getting a lot of insights from this Brazil-Africa Dialogue on food security. Our President has set his vision towards rural industrialization and transformation and we have already started a lot of income-generation business units and our Pfumvudza/Intwasa concept is a milestone achievement to climate change. Be that as it may, Brazil is a giant in rural development, so we take lessons to bolster our models home.”
The Brazil-Africa Dialogue Global Alliances Against Hunger and Poverty’s main objectives include reaching 500 million people with income transfers, providing school meals to 150 million children and offering pregnancy monitoring to 200 million rural women.
