26 Feb 2013

The Ministry of Agriculture is reviewing the 1991 Agricultural Policy and initial consultations with stakeholders have been completed, Parliament has been informed. 

Presenting the ministry’s 2013/14 budget proposal, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Christian De Graaff said they were consolidating inputs from different stakeholders.

On youth and agriculture, Mr De Graaff said his ministry would continue to guide and assist young people in developing their business proposals for agriculture based projects in collaboration with other government agencies.

The minister said, while some young people occasionally abandoned projects, there had been a steady increase in youth owned agricultural projects from 415 to 425.

On the Zambezi Integrated Agro-Commercial project, Mr De Graaff said following recommendations from the due-diligence assessment exercise that identified some major risks with the project as it was initially proposed; the ministry was redesigning and relocating it to an area west of the existing Pandamatenga farms.

“We are currently floating an invitation for expression of interest for consultants to work on the feasibility study, which would culminate in the designing of the new project as well as advice on its management and possible financing models,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said construction of roads and drainage infrastructure at Pandamatenga farms was ongoing.

Parliament also heard that in an effort to improve service delivery at district level, the ministry had since appointed district agricultural coordinators whose major responsibility was to ensure that agricultural programmes were coordinated.

To that end, he said the country had been categorised into agro-ecological zones while the ministry staff was being re-deployed to production zones to strengthen extension and improve agricultural productivity. ENDS