Story by Farai Gwaze
GOVERNMENT investors and the private sector met in Harare this Thursday for a stakeholder engagement to deliberate on strategies to generate carbon credits from hemp production.
The engagement is in line with government efforts to develop ways of generating revenue from the crop through carbon credits.
“There was some excitement with hemp production in the country, but also fears that were born out of lack of knowledge and capacity. For that reason, government then triggered the Agricultural Marketing Authority, under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, to guide the sector through statutory instruments aimed at ensuring that there is some organised level of its production.
“Overtime, we now have the Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust that came together to try and provide education and knowledge around the production issues. The angle we are coming in from is to say how do we translate the cost of production into carbon sequestration and therefore raising money for the production of hemp?” said the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Professor Prosper Matondi.
Hemp Carbon Standard co-founder, Mr Jon Bannister said, “We have created the first carbon credits from industrialised hemp farmers throughout the UK, Canada, America and we are looking at getting into Zimbabwe. We are looking at doing a pilot project with ZIHT, we will be going to see a farm on Monday as a pilot to encourage farmers to grow industrial hemp.”
“As AMA we are the regulators of industrial hemp in Zimbabwe, through SI 218 of 2020. We look at the production, processing and marketing of industrial hemp in Zimbabwe. In this workshop we were looking at the issue of hemp in carbon markets, it’s still a new industry in terms of hemp credit markets,” said Agricultural Marketing Authority director, Mr Jonathan Mukuruba.
Chief executive officer and founder of the Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust, Dr Zorodzai Maroveke says the engagement is also key in bridging the knowledge and information gap in the hemp space.
“The Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust is now embarking on its climate action strategy. The most important thing is to bridge the knowledge and information gap that we are seeing generally in the hemp space, particularly in the climate economy. Where does hemp fit in and how is it going to have a post impact on the farmers who are going to be participating?,” said Dr Maroveke.
By ensuring local farmers benefit from carbon credits, the government is prioritising the needs of its citizens and promoting a more equitable and inclusive approach to climate action.
