THE British government has once more proved a saviour to President Robert Mugabe’s government when it released $72 million for a four-year Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP) to support smallholder farmers.
by PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
The support is expected to assist 126 975 smallholder farm households in the following eight districts: Mutare, Makoni and Mutasa Districts of Manicaland province, Kwekwe, Gokwe South and Shurugwi districts in Midlands province and Guruve and Mt Darwin in Mashonaland Central province.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made hailed the support from the British as very timely in light of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset) dependence on agriculture.
“My ministry and indeed the Government of Zimbabwe is very excited about this programme and would like to commend DFID for availing the support and resources for the programme whose objectives fit very well with the development aspirations of Zimbabwe,” Made said.
“I would like to thank UKAID for funding the programme to the tune of GBP45 million equivalent to $72 million, in support of smallholder farmers in Manicaland, Midlands and Mashonaland Central provinces.”
The aid comes as Zimbabwe’s braces for another season of food deficiency as a result of drought, inadequate agriculture inputs, inadequate funding and broken down irrigation infrastructure.
UK Aid under DFID said the aid was expected to improve production among smallholder farmers.
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“The programme will contribute to poverty reduction, in line with Zimbabwe’s national priorities. It will also actively address the specific constraints that smallholder farmers, particularly women, face in raising the productivity of their farms and enabling them to sell the food they produce in markets,” it said.
It added the programme in total is expected to reduce food insecurity for 348 975 across all the eight districts in which it would be implemented. Relations between Britain and Zimbabwe soured in 1997 after the Labour government under Tony Blair refused to honour the Lancaster House agreement in relation to funding land reforms which were a sticking point during 1979 independence constitutional talks.
Mugabe after the rebuff embarked on a fast track land reform programme that plunged agriculture production and at the same time inviting sanctions from the European Union and the United States.
The sanctions were mainly put for human rights violations particularly during the militant takeover of the farms from white commercial farmers.
