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| Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Ezra Chadzamira in long sleeve shirt |
Blessed Chauke
The Minister of
State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Ezra Chadzamira has
applauded government for the many agricultural projects planned for the
province, saying the province was ready to make a bigger contribution to the
success of the National Development Strategy through farming.
Speaking at the
Chombwe Water Scheme in Chivi North on April 10, Chadzamira said the province
needed to be supported with more water projects and irrigation schemes.
“We are pleased
that government will soon fund construction of the Muzhwi-Mushandike Canal to
harvest water from Muzhwi for farmers in Mashava, Chivi and Mushandike. There
will be other irrigation schemes in such districts as Bikita which will harness
water from Mutirikwi,” said Chadzamira.
He also said
government had agreed to fund construction of another dam at the confluence of
Runde and Tende Rivers in the district, a project he said would enable Zimbabwe
to export water to South Africa.
He thanked
President Emmerson Mnangagwa for initiating the pfumvudza programme which he
said had enabled perennially dry districts as Chivi to increase their crop
yields this year.
He said
government had many irrigation projects in the pipeline, all of which are aimed
at making Masvingo a green belt of agriculture.
Speaking at the
same event, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube said
Masvingo was potentially a very rich province whose natural resources needed to
be developed.
“Masvingo
province has a lot of wealth; your roads, your tourism facilities, the
agricultural land. You can see the whole of Zimbabwe from Masvingo alone. You
have a lot of water bodies but we need to build more irrigation schemes so that
the water can be put to work.
“So you are a
very rich province but we want to make sure that we support you as central
government so that you make your rightful contribution onto the size of the
national cake; the national GDP,” said Ncube.
Chivi Rural District
Council (RDC) chairperson Godfrey Mukungunugwa said people in the district had
benefitted a lot from the pfumvudza programme.
“People in this
area have for long been harvesting poor yields but with
pfumvudza, they now expect a bumper harvest this year. Even if they receive low
rainfall, it will no longer be much of a problem since they can now be
supported by the Chombwe Irrigation Scheme,” said Mukungunugwa.
