Story by Tendai Munengwa
GOVERNMENT performance-based contracts and awards have received strong support from farmers who have praised the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development for significantly transforming the agricultural sector in line with Vision 2030.
The transformation saw the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, his deputy, Honourable Vangelis Haritatos, and Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri receiving accolades at the Performance Contracts and Awards Ceremony held in Harare on Monday.
Launched in 2021 by President Dr Emmerson Mnangagwa to promote accountability and results-based leadership across Government, the performance-based contracts have strengthened servant leadership and improved service delivery throughout the public sector.
The agricultural sector continues to dominate the performance-based awards after farmers improved production and enhanced food security, thanks to strategic interventions by the Second Republic, chief among them the Zimbabwe Belarus Mechanisation Programme that has equipped thousands of farmers with tractors, combine harvesters and implements, thereby propelling productivity.
This has seen farmers achieving new records in tobacco, raking in a record 355 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf for the first time in history.
The same trajectory has been achieved in grain production, where farmers hit over 630 thousand metric tonnes of wheat, surpassing the national requirement of 360 000 tonnes for the first time.
In livestock and horticulture, the production levels continue on an upward trajectory.
“We congratulate the top officials from the Ministry of Agriculture for achieving the performance awards. This demonstrates their dedication to support farmers with resources, and this has paid dividends as witnessed in records broken in tobacco, grain, wheat and horticulture, such as evidence that they deserve such recognition by His Excellency the President,” Zimbabwe Farmers Union Secretary General, Paul Zakaria said.
“The awards to the top hierarchy of the Ministry of Agriculture by President Dr Mnangagwa show that the ministers’ and permanent secretary’s strategies are well aligned to Vision 2030 and NDS2. We congratulate them and encourage them to keep doing the good work,” Zimbabwe Agriculture Society, Mr Rufaro Gunundu said.
“We give thumbs up to our relevant ministry for this achievement- they have demonstrated that food security is key, hence we applaud them and promise to keep working together going towards,” Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Dr Shadreck Makombe said.
President Dr Mnangagwa says it is encouraging that ministries, departments and agencies developed new Five-Year Strategic Plans that are fully aligned to Government’s strategic blueprint, the National Development Strategy Two (NDS 2).
To build on the gains of the Second Republic, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development has developed the Agriculture Food System and Rural Transformation Plan Phase Two, which is expected to drive growth in food, nutrition, livestock, horticulture, and tobacco production, among other agricultural projections.
