Zimbabwe’s minister of agriculture and rural development Dr Joseph Made believes expansion of the horticultural industry through both greenhouse and open field production stands out as one of the key factors in the country’s economic revival.

Made said this after touring the Horticulture Research Institute in Cairo (Egypt), where the institute’s director, Dr Assem Shaltout, took him and his delegation through various aspects of horticultural production and techniques.

"For us to expand our horticulture industry, we need to produce in greenhouses and the open field. Our people in the peri-urban areas should be pushed into greenhouse production of tomatoes, beans and cucumbers,” said Made.

"Through these production techniques, we must now have foreign currency in the hands of our people just as is the case with tobacco and beef exports.”

Zimbabwe’s agrarian reform programme has resulted in many people being allocated land and should also be translated into the development of various sectors of agriculture, as Zimbabwe pushes hard to retain a position as one of southern Africa’s key producers of food.

It is claimed that the Zimbabwe Horticultural Promotion Council as currently constituted has not been forthcoming in terms of assisting new players in the sector to market their produce, and the government plans to establish the broad-based and inclusive Horticultural Authority (HA), which should be operational within the next three months.

As Zimbabwe puts together the framework for establishing the HA, a team led by the head of the Horticulture Research Institute Fabeon Ngwerume is today expected to hold discussions with Shaltout, on the horticultural techniques that Zimbabwe can learn from Egypt.

Made gave Mr Ngwerume’s team two to three weeks to finalise requirements for both equipment and material to boost horticultural production.

He said the peasant farming community and small-scale farmers could only be elevated to higher production levels if they were provided with the adequate tools of production, such as tractors, and irrigation.

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