Story by Bruce Chahwanda
FOOD and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General, Dr Qu Dongyu has been impressed by Zimbabwe’s agriculture transformation strategy which has contributed significantly to national food security.
He said this when he paid a courtesy call on President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House in Harare this Wednesday.
Dr Dongyu said FAO has opened more areas of cooperation with Zimbabwe in aquaculture and climate change mitigation.
‘‘First of all, I want to salute the great achievement through His Excellency, the President, that your country has managed a bumper harvest for the staple food. Our discussions were fruitful and we are expanding our cooperation to aquaculture on how each village can utilise that for proteins. We also discussed how we can fight climate change more sustainable to feed the rural areas as well as empower the rural communities and those in urban areas.’’
The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka said the visit by the FAO delegation is an opportunity to chart a new course in Zimbabwe’s cooperation with the world organisation.
‘‘We have time to prepare ourselves for the UN Water Conference in March. It is an opportunity for Africa to discuss water financing, water governing, and nation development for electricity generation. We took advantage of his visit to discuss the support that FAO is rendering to Zimbabwe in the transformation of food agriculture and systems. You can see that Zimbabwe has attained food security as a result of this complimentary role,” he said.
Zimbabwe has transformed its agricultural sector through the adoption of climate-proof farming methods, increasing funding and investing in mechanisation, dam construction and irrigation infrastructure.
