By Staff Reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that the country is on the right path to prosperity and has urged Zimbabweans to remain optimistic of the country’s economic growth spurred by expected bumper harvest this year.

Writing on his social media sites yesterday, President Mnangagwa said that the country is expecting a record bumper harvest this year, since the inception of the land reform in the early 2000s.

“In 2019/2020, Zimbabwe had a maize harvest of 908 thousand tonnes. This year the maize harvest is predicted to triple to 2, 8 million tonnes — a record harvest post-land reform. Zimbabweans, don’t let the doubters dampen your spirit. Our country is on the path to prosperity,” said the President.

The expected harvest of 2, 8 million tonnes is likely to surpass last year’s maize production by almost 200 percent.

The expected bumper harvest has been made possible by
abundant rains and timeous preparations, which saw more than two million households from the country’s eight rural provinces benefitting from the Presidential Input Support Scheme.

Government also dished out free inputs to farmers who participated in the conservative and climate-proofed method of Pfumvudza.

The Permanent Secretary in the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, John Basera, also echoed President’s Mnangagwa’s projections of a bumper harvest this year.

“Traditional grains hectarage surged by 15 percent (sorghum) and 26 percent (pearl millet) in 2020/21 cropping season versus 2019/20 season. Tobacco hectarage surged by seven percent to 125 177 hectares in the 2020/21 cropping season from 117 049 hectares in the 2019/20 season. Area under cotton increased by 40 percent from 170 622 hectares in 2019/20 to 239 619 in 2020/21 cropping season,” said Permanent Secretary Basera.

The New Dispensation has heavily invested in agriculture, which is the backbone of the economy, to ensure national food security as well as growing the country’s economy.