Agricultural research remains central to Zimbabwe's efforts to strengthen food production and address challenges such as climate change, soil infertility and crop diseases, a senior government official has said.
Speaking during a recent tour of the Agriculture Research Trust in Harare, Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary, Professor Obert Jiri said research-driven solutions were essential for the country's agricultural development.
"Research efforts are sustained and they are impactful, and also how do you intend to collaborate with the private sector?" he said, emphasising the importance of partnerships in advancing innovation in farming.
Prof Jiri noted that Zimbabwe's agricultural growth strategy was built on scientific research aimed at addressing emerging threats affecting productivity.
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"So certainly research is critical for our agricultural development. Our development for agriculture is based on research," he said.
"Issues such as climate change, soil infertility, pests and diseases, declining yields, all those require research to ensure that we get the solutions that we must get."
The permanent secretary said the government was working to ensure that research activities are adequately funded in line with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which recommends that countries allocate a portion of their agricultural budgets to research.
"So as government, certainly under the CARDAP agenda, we are supposed to set aside 1% of the agricultural budget for research," he said.
"And we have been trying to do that so that even the government research efforts are sustained."
Prof Jiri said government institutions were not the only players driving agricultural innovation, noting that private companies were increasingly investing in specialised research areas.
"But we do have private research, contract research, and research by private companies, which is so important to us," he said.
"And for that we depend on collaboration that we do with those entities."
He cited the sugar industry as an example where private sector institutions were playing a leading role in research and development.
"Government will not, for example, focus on research in sugar cane, because private sector is really taking that on board," he said.
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"They are doing research, and they are advising us, they are telling us, and they are really feeding into the government system in terms of what should be done for the sugar sector, for example."
He added that the same approach was evident in emerging agricultural sectors such as blueberries, where private investors had taken the lead in developing new production systems.
"We talk of blueberries, where government has really not put much in terms of research, but private sector has taken the lead.That is what we are really aiming for, to have private sector lead even in the research effort. Government can only do so much, but private sector can do much more through collaboration." Prof Jiri said.
Officials say strengthening cooperation between government research institutions and private companies will be key to improving agricultural productivity and ensuring the sector adapts to changing environmental and economic conditions.
