THE Swedish government has availed US$4 million to support 10 000 farmers in the dairy, soybean and horticulture niches as part of its new initiative to support farming in Zimbabwe.
The new initiative, dubbed Inclusive Market-Oriented Value Chains for Economic Development (iMoved) programme, was developed to help dairy, soybean and horticulture farmers.
It is being implemented by Sweden-based poverty rights organisation, We Effect, under the Zimbabwe Agriculture Growth Plan — a project that promotes farming productivity that was formulated by the Swedish government and the European Union.
The iMoved project is a partnership between We Effect and three local organisations, the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers, Women and Land in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Dairy Industry Trust.
Speaking at the launch of the project at Chivandire Dairy Farm in Chikomba, Mashonaland East province last week, Swedish embassy development co-operation deputy head of mission and head of development cooperation, Berthollet Kaboru, said: “The end goal is that we want to see increased incomes for female, male and young smallholder farmers participating in the dairy, soyabean and horticulture value chains.”
The project is expected to last for four years, from December 2022.
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The launch of iMoved coincided with the celebration of TranZDVC, another project which is being implemented by We Effect.
Speaking at the launch of the project, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement secretary John Basera commended the Swedish government for its support.
He said the programme would go a long way in capacitating smallholder farmers as well as increasing the production of milk and other products in the country.
“iMoved project is actually in line with the government’s thrust of the hub and spoke model whereby we link surrounding communities of smallholder farmers to what we call anchor or lead farmers, these anchor farmers or the hubs are the aggregation points and centres of excellence in terms of expertise,” he said.
“The concept and the model as contained in the iMoved project is a game changer and we will promote it and support it at any cost.”
Basera added that government’s thrust was to drive the import substitution agenda.
“Our milk product imports from other countries were reduced by 17%, from 8,9 million kilogrammes (kg) to 7,4 million kg last year, which was quite incredible,” he said.
“We need to work on our productivity because the moment we increase and upscale our agricultural productivity by 10% then we stand a chance to reduce poverty by 7%.”
The current local demand of milk in the country stands at 120 million litres per annum, but Zimbabwe produced 91,4 million litres last year which was a 15% improvement from 2021.
The improvement in raw milk supplies can be attributed to an increase in the number of smallholder dairy farmers, NewsDay Farming understands.