By Gondai Kamumango
In line with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s vision to restore the country’s bread basket of Africa status, Zimbabwean youths have taken the initiative to form an organisation called Coalition of Agricultural Graduates of Zimbabwe (COAGZ) in a bid not only to create employment but improve agricultural produce in the country.
The organisation which will be working under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, seeks to empower unemployed qualified youths in the country who are failing to secure formal employment.
Speaking to Harare Post, the founder and Chairperson of the organisation, Dickson Kubvakacha revealed that the organisation would recruit all agricultural graduates and professionals in the country and harness their skills to better the country.
“We are taking and coordinating all agricultural graduates and professionals who hail from various colleges, polytechnics and universities dotted around the nation for them to help reshape our economy through agriculture under various arrangements.
“We have 35 000 Agricultural Graduates who have been taught commercial production successfully and these people should be utilised to unlock value on the farms,” he said.
Kubvakacha added that one of the activities to be undertaken by the organisation is to pair A2 farmers with graduates and professionals who will manage their farms to optimise production and also create employment.
He said, “But as COAGZ, we are saying we have the capacity to produce food for all humans, animals and feed the industry. We will do this under various arrangements. One of them is compulsory management of all A2 farms in Zimbabwe by groomed, qualified and monitored managers from CAGOZ.
“These people will not bother Government for they will produce for the nation, paying themselves from their operations and giving the farm owners their profit. This way we conserve land, create jobs, produce food, plug out abuse of command inputs, among many other benefits,” he added.
The initiative by COAGZ goes a long way in advancing President Mnangagwa and Government’s vision of a middle class economy by 2030.
