VICE President Joice Mujuru has challenged constituency development associations to promote the full utilisation of land, infrastructure, equipment and markets to bring equity to agricultural production.
Addressing over 1 000 people at the launch of the Zvimba North Development Association at Dalston Estates in Mutorashanga on Sunday, VP Mujuru said development associations should help bring out the best out of individual farmers.
“There is rampant under utilisation of infrastructure as well as equipment on the farms, something that is creating food deficits every season,” said VP Mujuru.
“We do not want to see people who were given land queuing for handouts or the grain loan scheme.
“What we want is to see people becoming self reliant and producing adequately.”
She challenged community leaders to lead by example in the full utilisation of resources and allow their people to participate actively in the development of the national economy than to wait for Government subsidies every time. “Development associations should benefit everyone from the ward, district up to provincial level in the marketing of agricultural produce.
“They should reach out to the lowest levels of the society so that individuals can produce competitively and take care of themselves,” she added.
Government, said VP Mujuru, should improve on its service delivery through revamping all its vital departments and make them visible to the people whom they are supposed to serve.
She challenged departments like Agritex and the Veterinary Services to assist farmers thereby boosting agricultural productivity.
“Government’s speed in addressing farmers’ challenges is very slow and tends to discourage the full realisation of their potential,” she said.
“There are also people who were resettled on land that is known to be very productive for particular crops yet these people are not doing anything to exploit that advantage.
“It is such people that Government’s agents should identify, educate and help in making their contribution to the fiscus.”
VP Mujuru also challenged essential service providers such as banks to bring their economic officers to the farmers to educate them on financial management.
She said administrators should assist farmers access vital infrastructure such as irrigation and electricity to boost their capacity and also improve on timeliness, which is critical in agricultural production.
Farmers, VP Mujuru said, should be assisted to start value addition to their produce and when they get assistance from other organisations they should repay without problems.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made, who also attended the occasion, said development associations allowed communities to express their potentialities fully and brought a lot of equity in utilisation of equipment and other resources.
“People should be able to produce competitively if they get assistance in irrigation and agro-processing but the main principle is that the aid should not be for free,” said Minister Made.