New farmers, particularly those who were recipients of the Zanu (PF) government’s fast-track resettlement programme, are facing numerous obstacles ranging from restricted operating capital to lack of capacity and technical know-how. Lovemore Chitora, a war veteran and a beneficiary of the Zanu (PFs) chaotic land reform said the previous Zanu (PF) government had not done enough in equipping the new farmers with inputs and technical knowledge.
He highlighted the difficulties faced by the new farmers as well as to pave the way for them to further enhance and complement the new government’s agricultural efforts. “The farmer’s aim is for the government to facilitate and support knowledge, skills and experience transfer between established and new farmers in order to improve overall agricultural productivity. The need for skills and knowledge support to especially emerging farmers is a very crucial component in realizing the development of the sector,” said the farmer.
Another farmer Jameson Chaitezvi said: It has been very difficult for us to operate at full-scale farming because the previous government just neglected and dumped us here without giving us the required adequate inputs to embark on serious farming.
We cannot achieve the objective of the land reform if we are not supported by the government. We need to be trained and offered technical assistance, said David Samuriwo another farmer in the area.
Officials from Agritex in Mutare admitted that the new resettled farmers were facing a lot of challenges including farming technology and inputs. Government should supply enough inputs to the farmers so that they can increase production. There is need for them to be trained on various farming programmes and be well versed with the technology in farming. But, we have been failing to implement these because of few resources, said Joseph Chabwa from Agritex.
Post published in: News