Zimbabwe has outdone its peers in the race to achieve global nutrition targets with a well-coordinated implementation approach, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka has said.
He made the remarks in Abidjan after leading the country’s delegation attending the just ended High-Level Meeting on the Theme of the African Year of Nutrition 2022 on behalf of Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga who is the Cabinet committee chair on food security and nutrition.
Zimbabwe launched the Food Systems Transformation Strategy in 2020, a plan with which Government targets to grow the sector to US$8, 2 billion, achieve national food self-sufficiency and grow agriculture exports.
To this end, the country’s agricultural plan, which is oncourse not only for food self-sufficiency but, to becoming a player that other countries can rely on, has also been configured to be nutrition sensitive.
Under this frontier, Zimbabwe is targeting to provide food of sufficient quality, which is nutritionally rich and of high quality.
To achieve this there is need for multi sector coordination which includes the agricultural sector, health, innovation – under higher and tertiary education as well as fiscal support.
Coming into this meeting which converged continental peers from African Union member States and partners, the thrust was to gauge progress, learn from others, compare notes and collaboratively move on in implementing global targets.
“The African Union Nutrition Summit was very successful, first we had an opportunity as Zimbabwe to highlight progress in the implementation of the commitments that were made in Tokyo (Japan),” said Minister Masuka at the end of the meeting.
“For example, we committed to reducing stunting and Zimbabwe has made so much progress, because we have moved from 23.5 percent to 17 percent.
“Many countries are still above 30 percent, and yet Zimbabwe without any additional support and under sanctions has done exceedingly well.
“We also looked at reduction in amenia and child bearing women from 27 percent to 13 percent, and again Zimbabwe is on course to meet these targets. It is ahead of many countries,” said Minister Masuka.
Minister Masuka said they also looked at nutrition sensitive budgeting and resource allocation, an area in which he says Zimbabwe has again done exceedingly well compared to other countries.
“But what people liked and which is innovation, is the rural development 8 paradigm for Zimbabwe.
“The rural development 8 paradigm is a cocktail of Presidential interventions that are meant to uplift rural communities, to climate proof them, to alleviate poverty and to eliminate it.
“But also, to diversify nutrition this again for vision 2030. We look at the climate proofed intervention of Pfumvudza/Intwasa where everyone is surprised that Zimbabwe is actually able to give three million households, 9.2 million Zimbabweans, 61 percent of the population inputs year in, year out for seeds, fertilisers, chemicals and agronomy,” he said.
Minister Masuka talked up the 35 000 boreholes in 35 000 villages drilled under the Presidential Scheme, the capacitation of extension services which participants found to be progressive.
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