Agricultural Mechanisation –Taking Land Reform To A Higher Level

In its quest to ensure the success of the country's Land Reform Programme, the Ministry of Agricultural Engineering and Mechanisation of Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has embarked on an agricultural mechanisation programme, which has seen many new farmers receiving equipment and enhancing productivity. Amongst the equipment being availed to farmers under this policy are tractors, combine harvesters, disc ploughs, disc harrows, vicon fertiliser spreaders, boom sprayers and planters.

It is recalled that when the Government embarked on the Land Reform Programme some farmers sought to undermine the programme by destroying their farming equipment while others exported the equipment to neighbouring countries. Consequently, the first years of the Land Reform Programme were plagued by a lack of sufficient equipment prompting the Government to come up with the mechanisation programme to address this.

The mechanisation programme is yet another indication of the Government's commitment to empowering the indigenous people. It is ample testimony that the Land Reform was not a whimsical plan but a well thought out national programme designed to empower all Zimbabweans economically. Coupled with good rains, the mechanisation programme will definitely usher Zimbabwe into a new era of improved agricultural productivity and ultimately, development.