Harare — Government will address gender imbalances by increasing the percentage of landholding by women to 50.

According to the National Women's Economic Development Plan launched by Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe in Harare last week, women had been sidelined from commercial agriculture.

"This plan will focus on empowering women in the agricultural sector to achieve food security and sustainable rural livelihoods by 2015. Women should be supported to move from subsistence to commercial farming by enabling them to access land, capital, mechanisation and training.

"We also want to ensure gender equality in ownership and control of land in Zimbabwe and improve access to national and international markets for agricultural commodities produced by small-scale farmers, especially women," the document plan reads.

DPM Khupe said her office would work with the Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Ministry to address challenges women farmers were facing.

She said the plan also sought to increase extension service availability to support productivity of small-scale farmers.

DPM Khupe said: "There is low security tenure for women in their own right, and these constraints affect women across the country's geographical regions.

"Gender is not adequately mainstreamed in agriculture and related legal, policy and administrative processes and administration of land, agriculture and related issues is not coordinated," she said.