Youths urged to take up farming seriously

YOUTHS in Mashonaland West province have been urged to take farming seriously.

This was said by Zimbabwe Young Farmers Association for Sustainable Development national director of lands, projects and development, Cephas Shonhiwa on
Tuesday.

"Whether you have the capacity or not, as youths, you should take farming seriously," Shonhiwa said.

"Farming, like any other field, is a business and is part of our national economy.

"Behind almost every plate of food is the work of perhaps a dozen or more farmers. Even in something as simple as a dish of pasta with tomato sauce, farmers grew the wheat for the pasta, and the tomatoes, basil, onion, garlic and olives needed to make the sauce."

Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Sadc before the chaotic land reform programme of 2000.

The country's food production fell after it emerged that the political elite were holding large swathes of land for speculative purposes.

Most youths did not benefit from the land redistribution exercise and only a minority has also taken farming seriously.

Shonhiwa added: "Much of the food we eat is the result of work by a huge number of farmers, growers and agricultural workers, but in many parts of the country, we simply pluck packets of food off supermarket shelves without giving this provenance a second thought."