Placements for 5 000 youths in agriculture

Up to 5 000 youths who graduated in Kwekwe last year after undergoing the provincial youth development skills programme will be placed on farms to boost their involvement in agricultural activities and contribute to economic development.

Five of Zimbabwe's eight rural provinces have since submitted schedules of proposed beneficiaries for approval by Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka.

A database of the beneficiaries will be set up to keep track of the agricultural activities being carried out on the farms to ensure they are turned into viable business ventures.

Under President Mnangagwa's plan of leaving no one and no place behind, youths are expected to get 20 percent of the available land.

Dr Masuka said youths had to be aware that the ministry was fulfilling the President's directive that they first go through training before being allocated land.

He was speaking during a virtual youth working group meeting, which is coordinated by the Ministry's youth desk every quarter to allow the Minister to interact directly with youths.

Said Dr Masuka: "The example we are setting with them (youths), is not only giving them the land, but it is giving them a business. So, we want to carry through to see the business of agriculture being conducted and one day, to be able to do field days on these pieces of land.

"We need to see what each of them is going to do to link them to opportunities, is it AFC, CBZ, mechanisation, what is the business plan of these youths? That's where we want to head."

Youths are a critical demographic in Zimbabwe's development, constituting 62 percent of the population.

And with an agro-based economy, the Government is expecting youths to play a critical role in the sector, focusing on crop and livestock value chains.

The Government expects youths to find space in finance, inputs, logistics, transport, storage and ICTs.

Other opportunities for youths are in market linkages and trade, among other aspects of agricultural produce.

Dr Masuka said since not everyone will get a farm after most of it had been distributed, some could get into joint ventures.

Those with land, but lacking capacity could also be matched in joint ventures as Government "has no appetite to take back land from blacks and giving it to other blacks".

"Those who do not have capacity, but have been given land, must just raise their hand so that we match them with other Zimbabweans who have the capacity to farm so that they can enter into a productive joint venture which will capacitate them for perhaps up to five years, after which they will be able to take over so that there is production on the land," said Dr Masuka.

He said presently, Zimbabwe's agriculture was transitioning from land reforms, to land development.

In that regard, the Government had come up with a vision incubator and accelerator model through which an institutionalised business model would be set.

Through this initiative, youths will be able to buy shares and reap dividends without necessarily tilling on the land.

This will include 260 000 people on the waiting list for land, with 10 000 being in the diaspora who have expressed interest.

"Realising that we have distributed 99.99 percent of whatever we had to distribute, it means now we can't be continuing to cut pieces of land and be giving to more youths and more youths because we will villagise the country and jeopardise future productivity for this country," said Dr Masuka.

"If you have US$100, then you will be able to put it into this vision incubator model, which then becomes your farming unit.

"You get your shares, you get your annual dividend because you have invested in the business of agriculture."