Ministry of land Agriculture, Fisheries Water and Rural Development deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos said the Horticultural Economic Advancement Program (HEAP) will enable integrating of smallholder farmers into the commercial market.

Speaking at the launch of the HEAP program in Harare, Haritatos said the government discovered that a lot of small-scale farmers are very keen on horticulture.

"What it means for us is that we are now moving away from traditionally a commercial sector. So, as you know from the background of horticulture, horticulture was mainly in the commercial sector," he said.

He added that HEAP programme is part of a strategies to establish 35,000 village business units across the nation.

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"We're using HEAP and other programmes that are coming from government to ensure that the hub and spoke model works, aggregation works, so that the farmers on the ground not only sell produce to the local village, to the city or the town that they live nearby, but also to be able to have access to international markets," he said.

Haritatos added that Zimbabwe has an advantage in horticulture as it is a small country with good weather conditions

"We are only 16 million people; we have access to water. So, putting those benefits together as one, we are able to tap into regional markets as well as international markets to increase the domestic trade," he said.

He said the government hopes to create a more organised agricultural sector that maximizes the capabilities of smallholder farmers ensuring they can thrive in both local and international marketplaces.

"Potential that comes from horticulture can be able to produce up to two and a half billion United States dollars for our economy, horticulture can be a major positive player to the economy and great potential through what our farmers are already doing, but now being more organised," he said.