Catholic Church supports food security initiative
Story by Mercy Bofu
THE government has welcomed the Catholic Church’s support in the country’s efforts to ensure food security after the church embarked on a massive agriculture project in the Driefontein area of Chirumhanzu.
Vice President General (Rtd) Dr Constantino Chiwenga toured the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference’s 350-hectare wheat project in the Driefontein area of Midlands Province this Friday.
The project is under the Catholic Economy Value Chain known as Stella Mundi.
Vice President Chiwenga was impressed by the thriving project which dovetails with the Second Republic’s drive to guarantee national food security.
“It is pleasing to note that the Roman Catholic Church has established a huge Agro Industrial Corporation. The business case reveals a massive entity that would not only make the church financially self-sustaining but would drastically impact the country as far as employment creation and food security and sustenance is concerned,” he said.
He challenged other church denominations to emulate the Catholic Church in complementing government efforts to improve people’s livelihoods.
“Allow me to urge other denominations to emulate the good work that has been done here. Government will continue to support all organizations and entities that are willing to undertake similar projects,” he added.
Gweru Diocese Bishop Rudolph Nyandoro said the farming project is just the beginning of much bigger things to come as they seek to expand their agriculture enterprise.
“We acknowledge the passionate support the government gave to our vision. Their endorsement was pivotal in Stella Mundi securing the requisite commercial loans necessary to launch what we agreed would be “The Proof of Concept”. We await to scale up the roadmap the Proof of Concept was designed to trigger,” he said.
The Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Owen Ncube applauded the government for prioritizing the agriculture sector to improve provincial economies.
“As a province, we share cordial relations with the Church and we are looking forward to benefit from this initiative,” he said.
Chief Chirumhanzu noted, “The government continues to support us in our communities as you can see our people are now employed through this development.”
More than 100 people from Driefontein have been employed at the Catholic Agriculture project and plans are on course to establish Agro-Industrial Companies in the area.