By Conrad Mwanawashe
THE World Food Programme (WFP) says the US$5.1 million support for smallholder farmers financed by the Government of Japan is a shift from traditional assistance to creating empowered, self-reliant communities capable of thriving despite adversity.
According to WFP Country Representative and Director Barbara Clemens, the unique collaborative three-year initiative demonstrates the incredible possibilities when the Government of Japan, the private sector, and WFP join forces for the people of Zimbabwe.
Clemens said the funding will enable WFP to implement climate resilience and sustainable agriculture initiatives directly supporting 37,000 people across fifteen (15) wards in five districts of Mashonaland Central, Manicaland and Masvingo Province.
The project will focus on providing vital water resources to the communities, and training farmers on the market-oriented approach, through the concept of “grow to sell under the Zimbabwe Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (ZIM-SHEP) initiative
“This initiative not only addresses the immediate needs of vulnerable communities but also sets a standard for what is possible when we come together with a shared vision. By establishing water-based infrastructure, enhancing agricultural extension services, and developing value chains, we are helping smallholder farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices.
“Crucially, we are also planning to link these farmers with reliable markets, including buyers from the private sector. This initiative is about more than food security; it is about transforming lives,” Clemens said at the signing of the project titled “The Project for Livelihoods Support for Smallholder Farmers through Enhancing resilience to Climate Change and Sustainable Agriculture”.
Small-scale farmers play a vital role in fostering economic growth and ensuring food security in the country but are exposed to droughts by climate change, and therefore require government, development partners and the private sector to help to build their resilience.
The project also aims to train government officers from the Agriculture and Rural Development Advisory Services and the Department of Social Development to strengthen their capacities to take a major role in managing asset creation activities.
Ambassador of Japan to Zimbabwe, Yamanaka Shinichi said also under this project, small-scale farmers will be supported in growing sesame seeds to practice market-oriented agriculture. Most of these sesame seeds will be processed sesame products like sesame oil and sesame paste. These sesame products are essential for Japanese cuisine.
“A Japanese trading company ITOCHU Corporation, one of Japan’s largest trading companies, is expected to play an important role in completing the value-chain of the project. ITOCHU Corporation will study and advise on the sesame quality and logistics necessary to access global markets, and support to export the sesame seeds to Japan,” Ambassador Shinichi said.
The sesame project will be implemented through Sustainable Agriculture Technology (SAT) which also signed an agreement with the Japanese embassy and Ambassador Shinichi said the two projects collaborate each other to support small-scale farmers to expand agricultural production, to improve their standards of living, food security and agricultural exports of Zimbabwe.
“In this same context, the Japanese government will provide financial assistance approximately US$72,000 to the project for the construction of storages for sesame farmers in Mwenezi District implemented by SAT. SAT is expected to support sesame production and its procurement including value addition for the local and export market,” he added.
SAT Deputy Director Lloyd Masunda said in the last two agricultural seasons, the absence of aggregation facilities at community level and the limited storage space at our processing centre have been a missing link in development of sesame value chain in Chiredzi and Mwenezi Districts where SAT is currently working with 11,400 sesame producing households.
“The support from the Japanese Embassy will boost our support to aggregate sesame in rural communities and to store it properly and hygienically before processing at the value addition centre that we have established in Rutenga, in Mwenezi District. With this generous support, we hope in 2025, we will be able to aggregate at least 1,000 tons of sesame and channel this into the export market,” said Masunda.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Prof Obert Jiri said it is critical to link production to the market in order to transform rural people’s lives.
“The other element that is critical to note in this project is that there is need to capacitate the smallholder farmers. If we don’t capacitate them, they will not be able to know how to do and carry out these technologies. So the focus on training and capacitating the extension officers is critical.
“That is how we can really get our messages and our technologies onto the farmers. If we are to come out of the drought and build resilience into the future, we need to ensure that food security at household is emphasized even in this project,” Prof Jiri said.
